Methods and systems for capturing depth data using frequency-segregated structured light

ABSTRACT

An exemplary depth capture system (“system”) emits, from a first fixed position with respect to a real-world scene and within a first frequency band, a first structured light pattern onto surfaces of objects included in a real-world scene. The system also emits, from a second fixed position with respect to the real-world scene and within a second frequency band, a second structured light pattern onto the surfaces of the objects. The system detects the first and second structured light patterns using one or more optical sensors by way of first and second optical filters, respectively. The first and second optical filters are each configured to only pass one of the structured light patterns and to block the other. Based on the detection of the structured light patterns, the system generates depth data representative of the surfaces of the objects included in the real-world scene.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Depth data (e.g., spatial location data, positional coordinate data,etc.) representative of surfaces of objects in the world may be usefulin various applications. For example, depth data representative ofobjects in a real-world scene may be used to generate virtual realitycontent that includes an immersive virtual reality world that mimics thereal-world scene. Accordingly, users (e.g., people using the virtualreality content by way of a media player device) may virtuallyexperience the real-world scene by viewing and/or interacting with anyof a variety of things being presented in the immersive virtual realityworld.

Current techniques for capturing depth data may have room forimprovement, especially when used for capturing depth data of objects ina real-world scene as part of virtual reality applications. For example,while it may be desirable to capture depth data from various angles andperspectives with respect to the real-world scene, current depth datacapture techniques may not function properly when replicated atdifferent positions (e.g., with different angles and/or perspectives)with respect to the real-world scene due to interference (e.g.,crosstalk, etc.) between subsystems attempting to replicate the depthdata capture techniques at the different positions. Additionally,current depth data capture techniques may include inherent limitationsas to a detail level and/or a speed at which depth data may be capturedwith respect to a particular real-world scene. Such limitations may leadto sub-optimal quality and/or sub-optimal time latency in depth datacapture operations, leaving room for improvement particularly inapplications where high quality and/or low time latency is important(e.g., generation of an immersive virtual reality world representativeof a real-world scene, real-time generation of virtual reality content,etc.).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings illustrate various embodiments and are a partof the specification. The illustrated embodiments are merely examplesand do not limit the scope of the disclosure. Throughout the drawings,identical or similar reference numbers designate identical or similarelements.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary depth capture system for capturing depthdata using frequency-segregated structured light according to principlesdescribed herein.

FIGS. 2A-2B illustrate an exemplary depth capture system capturing depthdata of exemplary surfaces of an object in a real-world scene accordingto principles described herein.

FIG. 2C illustrates a perspective view of the object of FIG. 2A from theperspective of an optical sensor within the depth capture system ofFIGS. 2A-2B when a structured light pattern is being emitted onto andreflecting back from the surfaces of the object according to principlesdescribed herein.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary implementation of the depth capturesystem of FIG. 1 positioned with respect to an exemplary real-worldscene in order to capture depth data using frequency-segregatedstructured light according to principles described herein.

FIG. 4 illustrates another exemplary implementation of the depth capturesystem of FIG. 1 positioned with respect to another exemplary real-worldscene in order to capture depth data using frequency-segregatedstructured light according to principles described herein.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary virtual reality experience in which auser is presented with exemplary virtual reality media contentrepresentative of a real-world scene as experienced from a dynamicallyselectable viewpoint corresponding to an exemplary arbitrary locationwithin the real-world scene according to principles described herein.

FIGS. 6A-6C illustrate exemplary components of another exemplaryimplementation of the depth capture system of FIG. 1 capturing depthdata using frequency-segregated structured light according to principlesdescribed herein.

FIGS. 6D-6E illustrate perspective views of the object of FIG. 6A fromthe perspectives of optical sensors within the depth capture system ofFIGS. 6A-6C when different structured light patterns are being emittedonto and reflecting back from the surfaces of the object according toprinciples described herein.

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary node of an exemplary implementation ofthe depth capture system of FIG. 1 according to principles describedherein.

FIGS. 8A-8B illustrate exemplary components of another exemplaryimplementation of the depth capture system of FIG. 1 capturing depthdata using frequency-segregated structured light according to principlesdescribed herein.

FIG. 8C-8E illustrate perspective views of the object of FIG. 8A fromthe perspective of an optical sensor within the depth capture system ofFIGS. 8A-8B when different structured light patterns are being emittedonto and reflecting back from the surfaces of the object according toprinciples described herein.

FIGS. 9-10 illustrate exemplary methods for capturing depth data usingfrequency-segregated structured light according to principles describedherein.

FIG. 11 illustrates an exemplary computing device according toprinciples described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Methods and systems for capturing depth data using structured light, andfrequency-segregated structured light in particular, are describedherein. As used herein, “depth data” may include any spatial locationdata, positional coordinate data, or other data representative of aposition of one or more surfaces of one or more objects inthree-dimensional (“3D”) space. For example, as will be described andillustrated below, depth data may include data representative ofsurfaces of objects included in a real-world scene. Depth data may becaptured in various ways and/or by various techniques including bymethods and systems described herein. In certain examples, depth datamay be combined and/or synchronized with video data (e.g.,two-dimensional (“2D”) video data) to generate a dynamic volumetricmodel of the surfaces of objects that incorporate the depth data and thevideo data over a period of time. Such volumetric models may be used togenerate virtual reality content such as, for example, virtual realitycontent including an immersive virtual reality world representative of areal-world scene that includes the objects. Examples of depth data,techniques for capturing depth data, and uses for depth data aredescribed herein.

A depth capture system may capture depth data using frequency-segregatedstructured light by emitting a first structured light pattern ontosurfaces of objects included in a real-world scene using a firststructured light emitter and emitting a second structured light patternonto the surfaces of the objects included in the real-world scene usinga second structured light emitter. For example, the first and secondstructured light emitters may both be included within the depth capturesystem and may be disposed, respectively, at a first fixed position withrespect to the real-world scene and at a second fixed position withrespect to the real-world scene. To prevent interference (e.g.,crosstalk) between the first and second structured light patternsemitted onto (and reflecting from) the surfaces of the objects, thefirst structured light pattern may be emitted within a first frequencyband (e.g., a particular frequency band within the infrared (“IR”)portion of the electromagnetic spectrum) and the second structured lightpattern may be emitted within a second frequency band segregated fromthe first frequency band (e.g., a different frequency band within the IRportion of the electromagnetic spectrum).

The real-world scene with respect to which the first and secondstructured light emitters are disposed (i.e., at the first and secondfixed positions) may be associated with any real-world scenery,real-world location, real-world event (e.g., live event, etc.), or othersubject existing in the real world (e.g., as opposed to existing only ina virtual world) as may serve a particular implementation. For example,the real-world scene may include any indoor or outdoor real-worldlocation such as the streets of a city, a museum, a scenic landscape, asatellite orbiting and looking down upon the Earth, the surface ofanother planet, or the like. In certain examples, the real-world scenemay be associated with a real-world event such as a sporting event(e.g., a basketball game, an olympic event, etc.), a concert (e.g., arock concert in a large venue, a classical chamber concert in anintimate venue, etc.), a theatrical presentation (e.g., a Broadwaymusical, an outdoor pageant, etc.), a large-scale celebration (e.g., NewYear's Eve on Times Square, Mardi Gras, etc.), a race (e.g., a stock-carrace, a horse race, etc.), a political event (e.g., a presidentialdebate, a political convention, etc.), or any other real-world event. Inthe same or other examples, the real-world scene may be associated witha setting for a fictionalized scene (e.g., a set of a live-actionvirtual reality television show or movie) and/or any other scene at anyother indoor or outdoor real-world location as may serve a particularimplementation.

Accordingly, as used herein, an “object” included in a real-world scene,may include anything, whether living or inanimate, that is associatedwith the real-world scene (e.g., located within or around the real-worldscene) and that is visible from a particular viewpoint with respect tothe real-world scene. For example, if the real-world scene includes areal-world event such as a basketball game, objects for which depth dataof the object surfaces may be captured may include the basketball beingused for the game, the basketball court, the basketball standards (i.e.,the backboards, rims, nets, scoreboards, etc.), the players and refereesparticipating in the game, the fans, the arena, and/or other objectspresent at and/or associated with the basketball game.

Subsequent to or concurrently with the emitting of the first and secondstructured light patterns onto the surfaces of the objects included inthe real-world scene, the depth capture system may detect the firststructured light pattern and the second structured light pattern,respectively, using one or more optical sensors. For example, the one ormore optical sensors may be included within the depth capture system anddisposed at one or more additional fixed positions with respect to thereal-world scene. In some examples, the first and/or second structuredlight patterns may be detected using the one or more optical sensors byway of a first optical filter and/or a second optical filter bothassociated with the one or more optical sensors. For instance, the firstoptical filter may be configured to pass the first structured lightpattern emitted within the first frequency band and to block the secondstructured light pattern emitted within the second frequency band, whilethe second optical filter may be configured to pass the secondstructured light pattern emitted within the second frequency band and toblock the first structured light pattern emitted within the firstfrequency band.

Accordingly, by emitting and detecting first and secondfrequency-segregated structured light patterns in this way, the depthcapture system may generate depth data representative of the surfaces ofthe objects included in the real-world scene. Examples of generatingdepth data representative of the surfaces of the objects, as well asuses for the generated depth data, will be described in more detailbelow.

By capturing depth data using frequency-segregated structured light inaccordance with methods and systems described herein, a depth capturesystem may provide and/or benefit from various advantages that may notbe available to systems that capture depth data according toconventional methods. For example, in contrast with certain conventionalmethods and systems of capturing depth data, the methods and systemsdescribed herein may facilitate accurate, detailed, and timely depthdata capture from a plurality of different fixed positions with respectto a real-world scene (e.g., fixed positions surrounding or partiallysurrounding the real-world event).

Specifically, for instance, certain methods of capturing depth data mayemit or project a structured light pattern (or another similar type ofdepth reference) from a single fixed position and detect the structuredlight pattern from one or more additional fixed positions. However, thelocations and angles associated with the additional fixed positions maybe undesirably limited by the location and angle of the single fixedposition from which the depth reference is emitted. For example, if astructured light pattern is detected from a particular fixed positionthat is relatively far away from the single fixed position or at arelatively sharp angle with respect to certain objects as compared tothe single fixed position, the depth data generated based on thedetection from the particular fixed position may be inaccurate,incomplete, or otherwise suboptimal. Accordingly, it would be ideal foreach particular fixed position from which a structured light pattern isdetected to be relatively compatible with a fixed position from whichthe structured light pattern is emitted (e.g., similar enough in angleand/or location to the fixed position from which the structured lightpattern is emitted that accurate, complete, and/or useful depth data maybe captured). Unfortunately, however, if multiple structured lightpatterns are emitted so as to overlap on the surfaces of the objects forwhose surfaces the depth data is being captured, the structured lightpatterns may interfere with one another (e.g., due to crosstalk, etc.)such that accurately detecting only a compatible structured lightpattern (e.g., a structured light pattern emitted from a compatiblefixed location) may be difficult and prone to error.

Accordingly, rather than emitting a structured light pattern from asingle fixed position with respect to the real-world scene andattempting to detect the structured light pattern from multipleadditional fixed positions that may or may not be particularlycompatible with the single fixed position, the methods and systemsdescribed herein facilitate emitting multiple structured light patternsfrom multiple fixed positions so that every optical sensor attempting todetect a structured light pattern may do so from a fixed positioncompatible with at least one of the fixed positions from which thestructured light patterns are emitted. Moreover, to avoid theinterference problem between structured light patterns emitted frommultiple fixed positions and overlapping on the surfaces of objects, themethods and systems described herein may provide means for eachstructured light pattern to be clearly distinguished from otherstructured light patterns overlapping the structured light pattern onany particular surface of an object. Specifically, the depth capturesystems described herein may emit each overlapping structured lightpattern on a segregated frequency band such that each optical sensor (orportion of a particular optical sensor) may detect only one structuredlight pattern by way of an optical filter (e.g., a bandpass or notchoptical filter) configured to pass one structured light pattern (e.g., acompatible structured light pattern) while blocking other structuredlight patterns (e.g., less compatible structured light patterns).

Consequently, various nodes (i.e., depth data capture subsystemsconfigured to independently capture depth data) may be placed at variousfixed node positions with respect to a real-world scene (e.g. completelyor partially surrounding the real-world scene) in order to accuratelycapture depth data of objects within the real-world scene from variousangles and perspectives. Additionally, as will be further describedbelow, certain embodiments of the methods and systems described hereinfacilitate depth data capture at a greater level of detail (e.g., agreater resolution) and/or with a shorter time latency than conventionalmethods and systems of capturing depth data.

One or more of these advantages ultimately benefit an end user of thedepth data (e.g., a user experiencing an immersive virtual reality worldgenerated based on the depth data) by providing a higher qualityexperience to the end user in a timelier manner. For example, inapplications involving virtual reality content representative of avolumetric model of a real-world scene, the user may become immersed inthe real-world scene to an extent that may not be possible for peoplepresented with the real-world scene by way of traditional media (e.g.,television) or traditional virtual reality media. Indeed, the ability ofusers to dynamically and arbitrarily move their viewpoint within thereal-world event may provide the users with an experience of thereal-world event not even available to people physically present at thereal-world scene (e.g., people attending a real-world event). Forexample, users may be able to experience a live basketball game as ifrunning up and down the court with the players, or experience a liveconcert as if standing on stage next to the performers.

Various embodiments will now be described in more detail with referenceto the figures. The disclosed methods and systems may provide one ormore of the benefits mentioned above and/or various additional and/oralternative benefits that will be made apparent herein.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary depth capture system 100 (“system 100”)for capturing depth data using frequency-segregated structured light. Asshown, system 100 may include, without limitation, a structured lightemission facility 102, a structured light detection facility 104, amanagement facility 106, and a storage facility 108 selectively andcommunicatively coupled to one another. It will be recognized thatalthough facilities 102 through 108 are shown to be separate facilitiesin FIG. 1, facilities 102 through 108 may be combined into fewerfacilities, such as into a single facility, or divided into morefacilities as may serve a particular implementation. Each of facilities102 through 108 may be distributed between multiple devices and/ormultiple locations as may serve a particular implementation. Each offacilities 102 through 108 will now be described in more detail.

Structured light emission facility 102 may include any suitable hardwareor combination of hardware and software (e.g., devices configured togenerate light beams based on stimulated emission of electromagneticradiation such as laser devices or similar devices associated with anysuitable part of the electromagnetic spectrum, light beam splitters orshapers, computing systems, computing software, etc.) configured to emitstructured light patterns onto surfaces of objects included in areal-world scene from different fixed positions with respect to thereal-world scene and within different frequency bands (e.g., IRfrequency bands, visible light frequency bands, etc.). For example,structured light emission facility 102 may include a first structuredlight emitter disposed at a first fixed position with respect to thereal-world scene, a second structured light emitter disposed at a secondfixed position with respect to the real-world scene, other structuredlight emitters disposed at other fixed positions with respect to thereal-world scene, other hardware and/or software configured to emit thestructured light patterns onto the surfaces of the objects, and/or othercomponents as may serve a particular implementation. Examples ofstructured light emitters and other aspects of structured light emissionfacility 102 will be described in more detail below. Structured lightemission facility 102 may be configured to emit (e.g., project, display,etc.) multiple frequency-segregated structured light patterns ontosurfaces of objects within a real-world scene in any way describedherein and/or as may serve a particular implementation.

Structured light detection facility 104 may include any suitablehardware or combination of hardware and software (e.g., visible lightvideo cameras, IR optical sensors, optical filters, computing systems,computing software, etc.) configured to detect structured light patternsreflected from the surfaces of the objects within the real-world sceneafter or while the structured light patterns are emitted onto thesurfaces by structured light emission facility 102. For example,structured light detection facility 104 may include one or more opticalsensors disposed at one or more additional fixed positions (e.g., one ormore fixed positions offset by preconfigured amounts from the firstand/or second fixed positions of the structured light emitters ofstructured light emission facility 102) with respect to the real-worldscene, a first optical filter associated with the one or more opticalsensors and configured to pass only the first structured light pattern,a second optical filter associated with the one or more optical sensorsand configured to pass only the second structured light pattern, otheroptical filters associated with the one or more optical sensors andconfigured to pass other specific structured light patterns, otherhardware and/or software configured to detect the structured lightpatterns reflected from the surfaces of the objects, and/or othercomponents as may serve a particular implementation. Examples of opticalsensors, optical filters, and other aspects of structured lightdetection facility 104 will be described below. Structured lightdetection facility 104 may be configured to detect (e.g., sense, record,etc.) multiple frequency-segregated structured light patterns reflectedfrom surfaces of objects within the real-world scene in any waydescribed herein and/or as may serve a particular implementation.

Management facility 106 may include any hardware and/or software (e.g.,computing systems, networking systems, software programs, etc.)configured to generate, process, distribute, transmit, store, load, orotherwise manage or handle depth data representative of the surfaces ofthe objects included in the real-world scene. As such, managementfacility 106 may generate, process, distribute, transmit, store, load,or otherwise manage or handle the depth data in any way described hereinor as may serve a particular implementation. For example, managementfacility 106 may generate depth data based on the detecting (i.e., bystructured light detection facility 104) of the first and secondstructured light patterns and/or other detected structured lightpatterns.

In certain examples, management facility 106 may also distribute thedepth data and/or perform additional processing on the depth data toconvert the depth data into a useful form such as a comprehensive depthmap of part or all of the real-world scene, a dynamic volumetric modelof the surfaces of the objects included in the real-world scene,renderable virtual reality content that mimics the real-world scene, orthe like. Specifically, for example, based on the generated depth data,management facility 106 may generate a data stream representative of adynamic volumetric model of the surfaces of the objects included in thereal-world scene. The dynamic volumetric model of the surfaces of theobjects in the real-world scene may be configured to be used to generatevirtual reality media content representative of the real-world scene asexperienced from a dynamically selectable viewpoint corresponding to anarbitrary location within the real-world scene. For example, thedynamically selectable viewpoint may be selected by a user of a mediaplayer device while the user is experiencing the real-world scene usingthe media player device. Management facility 106 may also provide, tothe media player device based on the generated volumetric data stream,the virtual reality media content representative of the real-world sceneas experienced from the dynamically selectable viewpoint correspondingto the arbitrary location within the real-world scene.

Storage facility 108 may maintain depth data 110 and/or any other datareceived, generated, managed, maintained, used, and/or transmitted byfacilities 102 through 106. Depth data 110 may include depth datarepresentative of the surfaces of the objects included in the real-worldscene (e.g., generated by management facility 106). Examples of depthdata will be provided and illustrated below. In some examples, alongwith depth data 110, storage facility 108 may further include otherdata, such as data representative of a volumetric model (e.g., areal-time, 4D model) of the real-world scene, any part of which may bepresented to a user from any arbitrary viewpoint selected by the user.As such, system 100 may provide virtual reality media contentrepresentative of the real-world event as experienced from a dynamicallyselectable viewpoint corresponding to an arbitrary location at thereal-world event by providing different parts of depth data 110 and/orother data included within storage facility 108 to different mediaplayer devices based on dynamically selectable viewpoints that areselected by different respective users of the media player devices.Storage facility 108 may further include any other data as may be usedby facilities 102 through 106 to capture depth data usingfrequency-segregated structured light and/or to create or provide avolumetric representation of the real-world scene as may serve aparticular implementation.

As mentioned above, system 100 may include multiple structured lightemitters, multiple optical filters, and one or more optical sensors inorder to capture depth data using frequency-segregated structured light.To illustrate how these types of components may be used together tocapture depth data according to a structured light depth capturetechnique, FIGS. 2A-2B show elements of an exemplary depth capturesystem 200 (“system 200”) capturing depth data of exemplary surfaces ofan object 202 in a real-world scene. More specifically, FIG. 2A shows atop view of various elements of system 200 along with object 202, whichmay be analyzed by system 200 to capture depth data in accordance withmethods described herein, while FIG. 2B shows a front view of certainelements depicted in FIG. 2A, as described below.

System 200 may be similar to system 100 and/or a particularimplementation of system 100 but, for the sake of clarity, may besimplified as compared to implementations of system 100 that will bedescribed and illustrated below. In particular, as shown in FIG. 2A,system 200 includes a structured light emitter 204, an optical sensor206, and an optical filter 208 (in contrast to the multiple structuredlight emitters, the one or more optical sensors, and the multipleoptical filters described in relation to system 100). Each of thesecomponents, as well as how the components interoperate to capture depthdata representative of object 202, will now be described.

Object 202 may be included within a real-world scene (not explicitlydemarcated in FIG. 2A) and may represent any type of object describedherein. For example, while object 202 is drawn as a relatively simplegeometric shape for the sake of clarity, it will be understood thatobject 202 may represent various types of objects having various levelsof complexity. Rather than a geometric shape, for instance, object 202could represent any animate or inanimate object or surface, such as aperson or another living thing, a non-transparent solid, liquid, or gas,a less discrete object such as a wall, a ceiling, a floor, or any othertype of object described herein or as may serve a particularimplementation.

As shown, object 202 may include various surfaces that may each reflecta structured light pattern emitted onto the surfaces (e.g., bystructured light emitter 204) such that the structured light pattern maybe detected (e.g., by optical sensor 206 by way of optical filter 208)to generate depth data representative of the surfaces of object 202.While object 202 is depicted to be relatively simple, the depth of thesurfaces of object 202 may appear different based on a position (e.g., afixed position with respect to object 202) from which the depth of thesurfaces is detected. In other words, object 202 may look differentbased on a perspective or position from which object 202 is viewed.Accordingly, to fully model object 202, depth data representative ofobject 202 from various perspectives surrounding object 202 may be used.

Structured light emitter 204 may include any suitable hardware orcombination of hardware and software configured to emit a structuredlight pattern onto the surfaces of object 202. For example, structuredlight emitter 204 may include or be implemented by any of the componentsdescribed above in relation to structured light emission facility 102 ofsystem 100. In certain implementations, structured light emitter 204 mayinclude a device configured to emit a light beam 210 based on stimulatedemission of electromagnetic radiation that may be processed, split,shaped, filtered, or otherwise treated by an optical element 212. Forexample, optical element 212 may include or be implemented by adiffractive optical element that may be configured to split and/or shapelight beam 210 into a structured light pattern 214 that is emitted(i.e., projected, shined, etc.) onto object 202 and/or other objects inthe vicinity of object 202 within a real-world scene (not explicitlyshown).

In some examples, light beam 210 may include stimulated emission ofelectromagnetic radiation within a particular frequency band (e.g.,laser light within a visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum orsimilarly stimulated emission of light within an IR portion of theelectromagnetic spectrum or another suitable portion of theelectromagnetic spectrum). For example, as will be described in moredetail below, light beam 210 may be generated within a frequency bandsegregated from other frequency bands within which other light beamsassociated with other structured light emitters are generated. In otherexamples, the structured light pattern may be emitted using light notgenerated by stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation (e.g.,non-laser light, etc.) within a particular frequency band includedwithin any portion of the electromagnetic spectrum as may serve aparticular implementation (e.g., the IR portion, a microwave portion, anRF portion, a visible light portion, etc.).

Optical element 212 may split, shape, or otherwise alter light beam 210to form structured light pattern 214 in any way as may serve aparticular implementation. In certain examples, optical element may beoptional and structured light emitter 204 may emit structured lightpattern 214 without using light beam 210 and/or optical element 212.

Structured light pattern 214 may include or be implemented by anysuitable pattern of light (e.g., IR light, visible light, etc., as maybe emitted by structured light emitter 204). The arrows representingstructured light pattern 214 in FIG. 2A illustrate, from the top view, asector (e.g., a sector of the real-world scene) that may be illuminatedby structured light pattern 214 based on the position, projection angle,and other characteristics of structured light emitter 204. The patternof structured light pattern 214, however, may not be visible in the topview. As such, the pattern of structured light pattern 214 will bedescribed and illustrated in more detail below.

Structured light pattern 214 may be patterned in any way as may serve aparticular implementation. For example, structured light pattern 214 mayinclude a pattern of dots that are uniformly sized and/or uniformlydistributed. In other examples, structured light pattern 214 may includea pattern of dots with varied sizes and/or varied distribution patternsto facilitate identification of particular dots within structured lightpattern 214 by optical sensor 206 and/or a computing system processingdata captured by optical sensor 206. For instance, the dots may berandomly sized and randomly distributed (e.g., scattered) across thesurfaces of the objects in the real-world scene. In yet other examples,structured light pattern 214 may include stripes (e.g., horizontal,vertical, or diagonal stripes with uniform, varied, or random stripewidths and/or distributions), checkered patterns, and/or other suitablepatterns of structured light. In certain examples where multiplestructured light patterns overlap on the surface of an object, differentpatterns (e.g., complementary patterns that facilitate depth capture ofdifferent surfaces or different features of the surfaces) may be used.

When light included within structured light pattern 214 reaches thesurfaces of the objects in the real-world scene (e.g., such as object202), the light may reflect from the surfaces and travel back towardstructured light emitter 204 and optical sensor 206. As such, FIG. 2Ashows a structured light pattern reflection 216 that originates from(i.e., reflects off of) object 202 (e.g., and/or other objects withinthe real-world scene not explicitly shown) and is detected by opticalsensor 206 by way of optical filter 208.

Optical sensor 206 may include any suitable hardware or combination ofhardware and software configured to detect (e.g., sense, receive,record, etc.) a structured light pattern reflecting from the surfaces ofobject 202 (i.e., structured light pattern reflection 216 of structuredlight pattern 214). For example, optical sensor 206 may include or beimplemented by any of the components described above in relation tostructured light detection facility 104 of system 100. While opticalsensor 206 and structured light emitter 204 are illustrated in FIG. 2Ato be slightly converging (e.g., pointing inward toward one another), itwill be understood that in certain implementations, optical sensor 206and structured light emitter 204 may be oriented at any suitable anglewith respect to one another and/or with respect to the real-world scene.For example, optical sensor 206 and structured light emitter 204 may beoriented parallel to one another (i.e., both pointing straight aheadrather than pointing inward) or even oriented to be pointing somewhatoutward from one another as may serve a particular implementation. Itwill also be understood that the same principle may apply to otheroptical sensors, structured light emitters, and/or additional elementsof implementations of system 100 described herein (e.g., implementationsof system 100 described below).

Optical sensor 206 may be sensitive to light at a particular range offrequencies. For example, optical sensor 206 may include or beimplemented by a video camera that is sensitive to light at frequencieswithin the range of visible light. As another example, optical sensor206 may include or be implemented by an IR sensor that is sensitive tolight in an IR portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. For example, theIR sensor may be sensitive to all or virtually all frequencies in an IRportion of the electromagnetic spectrum, frequencies in a “near IR”portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, IR frequencies associated withwavelengths from approximately 600 nanometers (“nm”) to approximately1000 nm, IR frequencies associated with wavelengths from approximately700 nm to approximately 950 nm, IR frequencies associated withwavelengths from approximately 750 nm to approximately 875 nm, or anyother frequency range as may serve a particular implementation.

In certain examples, optical sensor 206 may be sensitive to a firstparticular frequency range, but the sensitivity of the optical sensormay drop off near the edges of the first particular frequency range suchthat optical sensor 206 may only properly detect (or may mosteffectively detect) a second particular frequency range that is a subsetof the first particular frequency range. For example, optical sensor 206may be at least somewhat sensitive to (i.e., capable of detecting) lighthaving wavelengths from approximately 600 nm to approximately 1000 nm,but may be most sensitive to light having wavelengths from approximately700 nm to approximately 950 nm, from approximately 750 nm toapproximately 875 nm, or within some other such range. Consequently, thesensitivity of optical sensor 206 may be a determining factor for howmany overlapping structured light patterns may be emitted onto onesurface of an object such as object 202.

Whatever frequency of light optical sensor 206 is sensitive to (i.e.,whether optical sensor 206 is a visual light video camera, an IR sensor,or another type of optical sensor sensitive to light from anotherportion of the electromagnetic spectrum), optical sensor 206 may becharacterized by a particular resolution. In other words, optical sensor206 may have a finite number of picture element (“pixel”) detectorscapable of detecting light independently from neighboring pixels.Optical sensor 206 may include various optical elements (e.g., lenses,etc.) configured to properly direct and focus incoming light to bedetected by the pixel detectors. Ultimately, the resolution and qualityof the depth data generated by system 100 may be, at least in part, afunction of the resolution of optical sensor 206. For example, ifoptical sensor 206 has a relatively high resolution, structured lightpattern 214 may be a relatively detailed and intricate pattern and stillbe detected by optical sensor 206. Conversely, if optical sensor 206 hasa lower resolution, structured light pattern 214 may be limited to aless detailed pattern (e.g., having larger and/or fewer stripes, dots,checkers, etc., in the pattern), which in turn may result in lessdetailed (i.e., lower resolution) depth data representative of thesurfaces of object 202.

Along with other optical elements of optical sensor 206, optical filter208 may be associated with optical sensor 206 by being positioneddirectly in front of optical sensor 206 so as to pass the structuredlight pattern (i.e., structured light pattern reflection 216) through tobe sensed (e.g., detected) by optical sensor 206. As will be describedin more detail below, in examples where light from two emittedstructured light patterns is reflected back toward optical sensor 206,optical filter 208 may pass one structured light pattern through to besensed by optical sensor 206 and block the other structured lightpattern from reaching optical sensor 206.

To this end, optical filter 208 may be a relatively narrow-band opticalfilter (e.g., a bandpass optical filter, a notch optical filter, etc.)configured to only pass light within a relatively narrow band offrequencies while blocking (e.g., reflecting, absorbing, scattering,etc.) light at other frequencies outside of the narrow band offrequencies. For example, optical filter 208 may include or beimplemented by a full width half max (FWHM) filter with an opticaldensity of approximately 4 that is configured to pass light within afrequency band that is only, for example, approximately 5 nm wide. Inother examples, any type of optical filter with any optical densityand/or any width of pass band may be used as may serve a particularimplementation.

Optical filter 208 may be matched to a frequency at which structuredlight pattern 214 is emitted (e.g., matched to a frequency of light beam210) so as to pass structured light pattern reflection 216 whileblocking most or all other light not associated with structured lightpattern reflection 216 (e.g., light from other structured light patternreflections that could otherwise cause crosstalk interference).Accordingly, the frequencies associated with both optical filter 208 andlight beam 210 may also fall within a range that optical sensor 206 iscapable of detecting.

In the example of system 200 illustrated in FIG. 2A, optical filter 208may filter all or substantially all of the light reflected from object202 in structured light pattern reflection 216. For example, as shown inFIG. 2B in a front view 218 of optical sensor 206 (e.g., the view ofoptical filter 206 from the front, or, in other words, from thereal-world scene where object 202 is located), optical filter 208 is atleast as large as (and covers all or substantially all of) a lens ofoptical sensor 206 whereby light enters optical sensor 206 to bedetected. Accordingly, as mentioned above, only frequencies that opticalfilter 208 is configured to pass (e.g., including a frequency at whichstructured light pattern 214 is emitted by structured light emitter 204)may be detected by optical sensor 206. In contrast, as will be describedand illustrated below with respect to other examples, an optical filtersuch as optical filter 208 may, in some situations, be divided intodifferent portions to allow different frequencies of light to passthrough different portions of optical filter 208.

FIG. 2C illustrates a perspective view 220 of object 202 from theperspective of optical sensor 206 when structured light pattern 214 isemitted onto the surfaces of object 202 and structured light patternreflection 216 is reflecting back. Specifically, in FIG. 2C, thestructured light pattern is shown to have a pattern including aplurality of horizontal stripes 222. As shown, due to the shape ofobject 202, stripes 222 may follow a curvature of the surfaces of object202 and may appear, from the fixed position of optical sensor 206 withrespect to object 202, to bend and contour to the surfaces of object202. By triangulating various points on each of stripes 222 based onknown angles and fixed positions of both structured light emitter 204and optical sensor 206, system 200 may determine depth datarepresentative of the surfaces of object 202.

While various elements of system 200 such as structured light emitter204, optical sensor 206, optical filter 208, etc., have been illustratedand described as if they are separate elements, it will be understoodthat one or more of the elements of system 200 may be combined in anyway as may serve a particular implementation. For example, in someimplementations, several or all of the elements of system 200 may becombined into a single unit which may include additional elements.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary implementation 300 of system 100positioned with respect to an exemplary real-world scene in order tocapture depth data using frequency-segregated structured light. Morespecifically, implementation 300 of system 100 includes a plurality ofnodes 302 (i.e., nodes 302-1 through 302-8) disposed at fixed nodepositions with respect to (e.g., in this case, surrounding) a real-worldscene 304 that includes object 202, described above in relation to FIGS.2A and 2C.

Each of nodes 302 may include one or more of the elements describedabove with respect to system 200. For example, each node 302 may includeone or more structured light emitters similar to structured lightemitter 204, one or more optical sensors similar to optical sensor 206,one or more optical filters similar to optical filter 208, and/or otherelements described above with respect to system 200 as may serve aparticular implementation. Additionally, since implementation 300 is animplementation of system 100, one or more elements described above withrespect to system 100 or described below with respect to otherimplementations of system 100 may also be included within one or more ofnodes 302 as may serve a particular implementation.

Accordingly, each node 302 may be configured to perform operations suchas those described and illustrated above with respect to system 100and/or system 200. Specifically, for example, each node 302 may emit atleast one structured light pattern onto surfaces of object 202 within aparticular frequency band and detect the at least one structured lightpattern (i.e., at least one structured light pattern reflection of theat least one structured light pattern) by way of an optical filter(e.g., a bandpass optical filter configured to pass only the particularfrequency band). For example, because structured light patterns emittedfrom the fixed node positions of each node 302 may overlap on certainsurfaces of object 202 with one or more other structured light patternsemitted from one or more other fixed node positions of other nodes 302,each node 302 may emit and detect structured light patterns usingfrequency bands that are segregated from one another. For example, eachnode 302 may emit a structured light pattern using a device thatgenerates stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation (e.g., avisible light laser or equivalent IR device or other device associatedwith another part of the electromagnetic spectrum) and a correspondingbandpass optical filter that are within one particular frequency band(e.g., a frequency band characterized by approximately 5 nm ofwavelength variance) that is segregated (e.g., separated byapproximately 10 nm of wavelength variance) from other frequency bandsused by other nodes 302.

The frequency bands and segregation widths used by different nodes 302may be associated with any frequencies as may serve a particularimplementation. For example, each band may be as narrow as componenttolerances and optical limitations may allow or as wide as may beconvenient or effective for a particular implementation. Similarly,bands used by different nodes 302 may be segregated from one another onthe electromagnetic spectrum by as much or as little magnitude (e.g.,frequency, wavelength, etc.) as may be convenient, effective, or usefulfor a particular implementation, including by being segregated by 0 nmof wavelength (i.e., by abutting one another on the electromagneticspectrum) or by being segregated by any other magnitude of wavelengthgreater than 0 nm as may suit a particular implementation. For example,by further segregating frequency bands used by different nodes 302,crosstalk between the nodes may be decreased to make it possible forcomponent tolerances (e.g., of optical filters, lasers, etc.) to belooser and/or for structured light pattern detection to be moreaccurate. Unfortunately, due to electromagnetic interference fromexternal sources, limitations in components that are available, etc., afinite number of different frequency bands may be available for use bynodes 302 as a practical matter. Accordingly, design choices may be madewith respect to frequency bands and segregation widths to optimizesystem 100 according to relevant design goals in variousimplementations. Where emitted structured light patterns may notsignificantly interfere with one another due to node position orgeometry (e.g., structured light patterns emitted by nodes that arerelatively distant from one another, across from one another, etc.),frequency bands may be repeated and/or reused to conserve usable spacein the electromagnetic spectrum. For example, in FIG. 3, structuredlight patterns emitted by nodes 302-1 and 302-5 may not interfere withone another because nodes 302-1 and 302-5 are across from one anotherand emitting structured light patterns onto different surfaces of object202 as a result. As such, nodes 302-1 and 302-5 may be configured to usethe same frequency band.

As shown, because of the different fixed node positions of nodes 302 ofimplementation 300, each node 302 may be associated with a uniqueperspective of object 202 such that the surfaces of object 202 may bedetected from various perspectives surrounding object 202 and each node302 may detect characteristics of the surfaces of object 202 that wouldbe difficult or impossible to detect from the fixed node positions ofother nodes 302. To illustrate, each node 302 includes dotted linesemanating therefrom representative of an area that the particular node302 may be associated with (e.g., that the particular node 302 may emita structured light pattern onto, detect a structured light patternreflection from, etc.). Specifically, for example, dotted lines 306 showthe area associated with node 302-1. In the example of FIG. 3, as shown,each of nodes 302 may be positioned so as to capture all orsubstantially all of the circular area designated as real-world scene304 from the perspective (i.e., angle, distance, etc.) afforded by therespective fixed node position of the node. In other words, all of therespective areas of nodes 302 may be overlapping with the respectiveareas of all the other nodes 302 in an area (e.g., a circular area)designated as real-world scene 304.

It will be understood, however, that in other examples, a real-worldscene may not be circular and each of nodes 302 may not capture all orsubstantially all of the real-world scene from a particular perspective.For example, a real-world scene may be round (e.g., circular,elliptical, etc.) or non-round (e.g., a shape having corners such as atriangle, square, or other polygon). Additionally, as will beillustrated below with respect to FIG. 4, a real-world scene may beelongated such that one side of the real-world scene may besignificantly longer than another (e.g., rectangular like a basketballcourt, stretched out like a racetrack, etc.). Accordingly, in certainexamples, each node of an implementation of system 100 may be associatedwith an area that includes a portion (e.g., a horizontal portion, avertical portion, etc.) of the real-world scene that is smaller than theentire real-world scene. As such, various portions of the real-worldscene associated with each node may overlap with other portions of thereal-world scene (e.g., portions of the real-world scene associated withneighboring nodes) but may not necessarily overlap with every otherportion of the real-world scene associated with every other node.

In FIG. 3, a plurality of eight nodes 302 are illustrated to besurrounding real-world scene 304 and object 202. It will be understoodthat this number of nodes is exemplary only and that any number of nodes302 as may serve a particular implementation may be used in variousexamples. Additionally, while nodes 302 are illustrated as completelysurrounding real-world scene 304, it will be understood that, in certainimplementations, nodes 302 may be located in fixed node positions withrespect to real-world scene 304 that do not necessarily surroundreal-world scene 304. For example, if real-world scene 304 represents astage where a play is being performed, nodes 302 may be located in fixednode positions with respect to real-world scene 304 in front of thestage but may not completely surround the stage in back. In certainexamples, real-world scene 304 may include several areas (e.g.,geographical areas) of particular interest to users along with otherareas of relatively less interest. As such, nodes 302 may be distributedto cover several distinct (i.e., non-touching) areas. For example,real-world scene 304 may include a racetrack that is several miles longand nodes 302 may be disposed at fixed node positions associated onlywith particular turns of the racetrack and/or the starting line, thefinish line, the pits, and/or other areas of interest along theracetrack.

Nodes 302 may be communicatively coupled by a connection 308 (e.g.,which may represent any wired or wireless direct or network connectionas may serve a particular implementation) to one another and/or toanother device such as to a data capture processing unit 310(“processing unit 310”). This may allow nodes 302 to maintainsynchronicity in time, position, angle, etc. so that a dynamicvolumetric model of the surfaces of objects included within real-worldscene 304 (e.g., including object 202) may be generated. For example,nodes 302 may send and receive timing signals to ensure that each node302 detects corresponding data at the same time and that the datadetected by different nodes 302 may be timestamped with a universal timeshared by all of nodes 302 in system 100. In other embodiments, audio,video, and/or other cues may be used by each node 302 to ensure thateach node 302 detects corresponding data at the same time.

Processing unit 310 may either be included within or communicativelycoupled to implementation 300 of system 100 as may serve a particularimplementation. Processing unit 310 may include one or more computingresources configured to generate depth data representative of thesurfaces of objects (e.g., including object 202) within real-world scene304 based on the detection of the structured light patterns emitted fromeach node 302 at each respective fixed node position surroundingreal-world scene 304. For example, processing unit 310 may include oneor more servers, desktop computers, or other computing devices that mayleverage various types of hardware (e.g., central processing units(“CPUs”), field programmable gate arrays (“FPGAs”), general purposegraphics processing units (“GPGPUs”), etc.) and/or software to performone or more of the operations described herein. In some examples,processing unit 310 may be configured to perform parallel computingoperations. For instance, processing unit 310 may perform parallelcomputing operations by simultaneously employing multiple types ofhardware (e.g., FPGAs and GPGPUs) to perform hardware-acceleratedparallel computing, by coordinating multiple hardware instances (e.g.,multiple GPGPUs on different desktop computers, etc.) to performmultiple-hardware parallel computing, by using a message passinginterface (“MPI”) to coordinate multiple computing nodes (e.g., eachcontaining a plurality of GPGPUs or other hardware instances) to performmultiple-node parallel computing, and/or by any other method as mayserve a particular implementation.

In certain examples, computing resources associated with each node 302may generate node-specific depth data (i.e., depth data representativeof the surfaces of object 202 as the surfaces appear from theperspective of the particular node 302) that may be further combined,stored, or otherwise processed, along with node-specific depth datareceived from other nodes, by processing unit 310.

After generating and/or otherwise processing the depth datarepresentative of the surfaces of object 202 included in real-worldscene 304, processing unit 310 may use the depth data or provide thedepth data for use by another system included within or otherwiseassociated with system 100 in any way as may serve a particularimplementation. For example, based on the captured depth data (e.g.,generated within nodes 302 and/or by processing unit 310), system 100may generate a real-time volumetric data stream representative of adynamic volumetric model of the surfaces of object 202 within real-worldscene 304. A dynamic volumetric model of an object may include and/or begenerated based both on 1) the depth data representing where and how theobject is positioned in 3D space at a particular time, or with respectto time over a particular time period, and on 2) synchronous 2D videodata (e.g., captured by system 100 or another system associated withsystem 100) mapped onto a positional model (e.g., a wireframe model ofthe object derived from the depth data) to represent how the objectappeared at the particular time or with respect to time over theparticular time period. As such, dynamic volumetric models may be 3Dmodels including three spatial dimensions or four-dimensional (“4D”)models that include the three spatial dimensions as well as a temporaldimension.

In some examples, processing unit 310 may generate a data stream (e.g.,a real-time data stream) representative of the dynamic volumetric modelof the surfaces of object 202 included in real-world scene 304. Such adata stream may be referred to herein as a “volumetric data stream.”Processing unit 310 may generate the volumetric data stream in real timesuch that users not physically located within or around real-world scene304 may be able to experience real-world scene 304 live, in real time,via virtual reality media content representative of real-world scene304. Accordingly, the dynamic volumetric model of the surfaces of object202 may be configured to be used to generate virtual reality mediacontent representative of real-world scene 304. The virtual realitymedia content may be generated by system 100 (e.g., by processing unit310) and/or by another system associated with system 100 (e.g., anothersystem operated by a virtual reality media provider or by a separateentity such as a virtual reality media content distributor associatedwith the virtual reality media provider). Virtual reality media contentmay be generated (e.g., based on a real-time volumetric data streamgenerated from a dynamic volumetric model of the surfaces of object 202and/or other objects within real-world scene 304) and then distributedby a network 312 to one or more media player devices such as a mediaplayer device 314 associated with a user 316. For example, system 100may provide the virtual reality media content to media player device 314so that user 316, who may not be physically located near real-worldscene 304 but who may wish to experience the real-world scene 304 (e.g.,a real-world event occurring within real-world scene 304), mayexperience real-world scene 304 virtually using media player device 314.As mentioned above, it may be desirable for user 316 to experiencereal-world scene 304 live (e.g., in real time as it is occurring with assmall a delay as possible). Accordingly, system 100 may provide thevirtual reality media content representative of real-world scene 304 tomedia player device 314 in real time.

While data processing and data distribution may take a finite amount oftime such that it may be impossible for a user to experience real-worldscene 304 precisely as events within real-world scene 304 occur, as usedherein, an operation (e.g., providing the virtual reality media content)is considered to be performed “in real time” when the operation isperformed immediately and without undue delay. Accordingly, a user maybe said to experience a real-world scene in real time even if the userexperiences particular occurrences within the event (e.g., a particularshot in a basketball game) a few seconds or minutes after theoccurrences actually take place. To support real-time dynamic volumetricmodeling and experiencing of immersive virtual reality worlds based onlive real-world scenes, system 100 or certain components of system 100(e.g., processing unit 310) may include or be implemented by powerfulhardware resources (e.g., multiple servers including multiple processingunits) that may be configured to perform the immense processing requiredfor real-time creation and distribution of immersive virtual realityworlds based on real-time volumetric data streams representative ofdynamic volumetric models of the surfaces of objects within real-worldscenes.

It may be undesirable for user 316, who may experience real-world scene304 virtually (e.g., using media player device 314 to present virtualreality media content provided by system 100), to be limited to one ormore discrete positions within the immersive virtual reality worldrepresentative of real-world scene 304. As such, system 100 may providethe virtual reality media content representative of real-world scene 304as experienced from a dynamically selectable viewpoint corresponding toan arbitrary location within real-world scene 304. The dynamicallyselectable viewpoint may be selected by user 316 of while user 316 isexperiencing real-world scene 304 using media player device 314.

As used herein, an “arbitrary location” may refer to any point in spaceat the real-world event. For example, arbitrary locations are notlimited to fixed node positions (e.g., where nodes 302 are disposed)around real-world scene 304, but also include all the positions betweennodes 302 and even positions where nodes such as nodes 302 may not beable to be positioned (e.g., in the middle of real-world scene 304).Moreover, arbitrary locations may not be limited to aligning with aviewing angle of any particular node 302. In some examples, sucharbitrary locations (i.e., that do not directly align with a viewingangle of any node 302) may correspond to the most desirable viewpointswithin real-world scene 304. For instance, if real-world scene 304includes a basketball game, nodes 302 may not be allowed to bepositioned in the middle of the basketball court because nodes 302 wouldinterfere with gameplay of the basketball game. However, user 316 maydynamically select viewpoints from which to experience the game that arein any arbitrary location on the basketball court. For example, the usermay dynamically select his or her viewpoint to follow the basketball upand down the basketball court and experience the basketball game as ifstanding on the basketball court in the middle of the action of thegame. In other words, for example, while nodes 302 may be positioned atfixed node positions surrounding the basketball court, but may not bepositioned directly on the court so as not to interfere with gameplay ofthe basketball game, user 316 may dynamically select viewpoints fromwhich to experience the game that are in any arbitrary location on thebasketball court.

Network 312 may include any provider-specific wired or wireless network(e.g., a cable or satellite carrier network or a mobile telephonenetwork), the Internet, wide area network, or any other suitablenetwork. Data may flow between processing unit 310 and media playerdevice 314 (as well as other media player devices not explicitly shown)using any communication technologies, devices, media, and protocols asmay serve a particular implementation. For example, processing unit 310may communicate with media player device 314 using any suitablecommunication technologies, devices, media, and/or protocols supportiveof data communications, including, but not limited to, socketconnections, Ethernet, data bus technologies, data transmission media,communication devices, Transmission Control Protocol (“TCP”), InternetProtocol (“IP”), File Transfer Protocol (“FTP”), Telnet, HypertextTransfer Protocol (“HTTP”), HTTPS, Session Initiation Protocol (“SIP”),Simple Object Access Protocol (“SOAP”), Extensible Mark-up Language(“XML”) and variations thereof, Real-Time Transport Protocol (“RTP”),User Datagram Protocol (“UDP”), Global System for Mobile Communications(“GSM”) technologies, Code Division Multiple Access (“CDMA”)technologies, Evolution Data Optimized Protocol (“EVDO”), 4G Long TermEvolution (“LTE”), Voice over IP (“VoIP”), Voice over LTE (“VoLTE”),WiMax, Time Division Multiple Access (“TDMA”) technologies, ShortMessage Service (“SMS”), Multimedia Message Service (“MMS”), radiofrequency (“RF”) signaling technologies, wireless communicationtechnologies (e.g., Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, etc.), in-band and out-of-bandsignaling technologies, and other suitable communications technologies.While only one network 312 is shown to interconnect processing unit 310and media player device 314 in FIG. 3, it will be recognized thatprocessing unit 310, media player device 314, and/or other subsystems ofsystem 100 or systems associated with system 100 may intercommunicate byway of multiple interconnected networks as may serve a particularimplementation.

Media player device 314 may be used by user 316 to access and experiencevirtual reality media content received from system 100 (e.g., fromprocessing unit 310). To this end, media player device 314 may includeor be implemented by any device capable of presenting a field of view ofan immersive virtual reality world (e.g., an immersive virtual realityworld representative of real-world scene 304) and detecting user inputfrom user 316 to dynamically update the immersive virtual reality worldpresented within the field of view as user 316 experiences the immersivevirtual reality world. Exemplary immersive virtual reality worlds andfields of view will be illustrated and described in more detail below.Additionally, in certain implementations, media player device 314 mayfurther be configured to present sensory data (e.g., 3D sensory dataother than video and audio data presented in connection with theimmersive virtual reality world) along with the field of view of theimmersive virtual reality world. For example, media player device 314may include, connect to, or otherwise be associated with sensoryfeedback devices such as sensory feedback gloves, sensory feedback bodysuits, and the like, which may present the sensory data to provide userswith a sensation of feeling, touching, smelling, or otherwise perceivingparticular objects or other elements of the immersive virtual realityworld and thereby enhance users' experiences within the immersivevirtual reality world. As such, in certain examples, system 100 (e.g.,data capture processing unit 310 and/or other components of system 100)may receive, generate, process, transmit, and/or otherwise providesensory data to media player device 314 to allow or facilitate enhancedsensory experiences for users within the immersive virtual realityworld.

In some examples, media player device 314 may be configured to allowuser 316 to select respective virtual reality media content programs(e.g., associated with different real-world scenes, as well as othertypes of virtual reality media content programs) that user 316 may wishto experience. In certain examples, media player device 314 may downloadvirtual reality media content programs that user 316 may experienceoffline (e.g., without an active connection to processing unit 310). Inother examples, media player device 314 may request and receive datastreams representative of virtual reality media content programs thatuser 316 experiences while media player device 314 remains in activecommunication with system 100 (e.g., processing unit 310) by way ofnetwork 312.

Media player device 314 may take one of several different form factors.For example, media player device 314 may include or be implemented by ahead-mounted virtual reality device (e.g., a virtual reality gamingdevice) that includes a head-mounted display screen, by a personalcomputer device (e.g., a desktop computer, laptop computer, etc.), by amobile or wireless device (e.g., a smartphone, a tablet device, a mobilereader, etc.), or by any other device or configuration of devices thatmay serve a particular implementation to facilitate receiving and/orpresenting virtual reality media content. Different types of mediaplayer devices (e.g., head-mounted virtual reality devices, personalcomputer devices, mobile devices, etc.) may provide different types ofvirtual reality experiences having different levels of immersiveness foruser 316.

While, as mentioned above, it may be desirable in some examples for user316 to experience real-world scene 304 in real time (e.g., as eventsoccur within real-world scene 304 or after a trivial period of delay),in other examples, user 316 may wish to experience real-world scene 304in a time-shifted manner, rather than in real time. To this end, system100 may store and maintain, subsequent to providing virtual realitymedia content representative of real-world scene 304 in real time, arecording of the volumetric data stream representative of the dynamicvolumetric model of the surfaces of the objects of real-world scene 304.Then, when user 316 later wishes to experience real-world scene 304,system 100 may provide virtual reality media content representative ofreal-world scene 304 as experienced from a dynamically selectableviewpoint corresponding to an arbitrary location within real-world scene304 selected by the user. For example, the virtual reality media contentmay provide the virtual reality media content to media player device 314based on the recording of the real-time volumetric data stream.

As another example of how system 100 may operate and/or be used in avirtual reality application in order to generate and/or facilitategeneration of a dynamic volumetric model of surfaces of objects in areal-world scene, FIG. 4 shows an exemplary implementation 400 of system100 positioned with respect to an exemplary real-world scene 402 tocapture depth data using frequency-segregated structured light. Asshown, real-world scene 402 in FIG. 4 includes or is associated with areal-world event of a basketball game (e.g., a live basketball game).

As with real-world scene 304 in FIG. 3, real-world scene 402 of FIG. 4is shown to be surrounded by inward-facing synchronous nodes 404-i, andmay surround at least one outward-facing node 404-o (collectivelyreferred to as “nodes 404”). The fixed node positions at which nodes 404are located illustrate an example where each node 404 may be associatedwith only a particular slice (i.e., a horizontal slice) of a real-worldscene, rather than the entirety of the real-world scene, as wasdescribed above. Specifically, each node 404 may capture (e.g., alongwith neighboring nodes 404 and/or nodes 404 that are across thebasketball court) only a particular section of real-world scene 402based on the location and orientation of the fixed node position atwhich the node is disposed.

Nodes 404 may be configured to emit structured light patterns ontoobjects 406 within real-world scene 402 (e.g., players, a basketball408, etc.), as well as to detect the structured light patternsreflecting from objects 406 included in real-world scene 402 and togenerate depth data representative of the surfaces of objects 406(and/or to send data representative of the detection to processing unit310 such that the depth data may be generated by processing unit 310).Accordingly, nodes 404 may be similar to nodes 302 in that each node 404may include one or more structured light emitters, one or more opticalsensors, one or more optical filters, and/or additional componentsdescribed to be associated with other nodes herein or as may serve aparticular implementation.

Additionally, nodes 404 may also include features not explicitlydescribed in relation to nodes 302 above. For example, nodes 404 mayinclude video capture devices (e.g., visible light video cameras, etc.)configured to capture texture data (e.g., 2D video data) of objects 406included in real-world scene 402 that, when combined with depth datarepresentative of objects 406, may be used to generate dynamicvolumetric models of the surfaces of objects 406 within real-world scene402. Also, as illustrated by node 404-o, one or more of nodes 404 may beoutward-facing nodes that emit and/or detect structured light patternsof objects surrounding real-world scene 402. For example, node 404-o mayfacilitate capturing depth data and/or texture data representative ofobjects in the spectator seating areas at the venue in which thebasketball game is taking place. Because node 404-o may not be able tobe positioned directly on the basketball court (i.e., because it wouldinterfere with the basketball game), node 404-o may be suspended abovereal-world scene 402 or otherwise positioned as may serve a particularimplementation.

Objects 406 may include any objects associated with (e.g., located in oraround) real-world scene 402. For example, objects 406 may includepeople on the court (e.g., basketball players, referees, and otherpeople on the basketball court), basketball 408, and/or other livingand/or inanimate objects such as basketball standards (i.e., backboards,rims, nets, etc.), the floor of the basketball court, people and/orfurniture on the sidelines of the basketball game, spectators andseating areas surrounding the basketball court, and the like.

As shown, nodes 404 may be communicatively coupled by connections 410(e.g., including wired or wireless connections as described above inrelation to connection 308) to one another and/or to processing unit310, which was described above in relation to FIG. 3. As furtherdescribed above, processing unit 310 may be communicatively coupled bynetwork 312 to media player device 314, which is associated with user316. Based on depth data generated by processing unit 310, system 100(e.g., processing unit 310 or another component of system 100) maygenerate a volumetric data stream (e.g., a real-time volumetric datastream) representative of a dynamic volumetric model of the surfaces ofobjects 406 included in real-world scene 402. Processing unit 310 mayfurther generate virtual reality media content representative ofreal-world scene 402 (e.g., based on the volumetric data stream) andprovide the virtual reality media content to media player device 314 tobe experienced by user 316, as described above.

To illustrate, FIG. 5 shows an exemplary virtual reality experience 500in which user 316 is presented with virtual reality media contentrepresentative of real-world scene 402 as experienced from a dynamicallyselectable viewpoint corresponding to an exemplary arbitrary locationwithin real-world scene 402. Specifically, virtual reality media content502 is presented within a field of view 504 that shows real-world scene402 from a viewpoint corresponding to an arbitrary location rightunderneath a basketball standard within real-world scene 402 where ashot is being made. An immersive virtual reality world 506 based on thereal-world event may be available for the viewer to experience byproviding user input (e.g., head movements, keyboard input, etc.) tolook around and/or to move around (i.e., dynamically select a viewpointfrom which to experience) immersive virtual reality world 506.

For example, field of view 504 may provide a window through which user316 may easily and naturally look around immersive virtual reality world506. Field of view 504 may be presented by media player device 314(e.g., on a display screen of media player device 314) and may includevideo depicting objects surrounding the user within immersive virtualreality world 506. Additionally, field of view 504 may dynamicallychange in response to user input provided by the user as the userexperiences the immersive virtual reality world. For example, the mediaplayer device may detect user input (e.g., moving or turning the displayscreen upon which the field of view is presented). In response, thefield of view may display different objects and/or objects seen from adifferent viewpoint (e.g., a viewpoint corresponding to the position ofthe display screen) in place of the objects seen from the previousviewpoint.

In FIG. 5, immersive virtual reality world 506 is illustrated as asemi-sphere, indicating that user 316 may look in any direction withinimmersive virtual reality world 506 that is substantially forward,backward, left, right, and/or up from the viewpoint of the locationunder the basketball standard that user 316 has currently selected. Inother examples, immersive virtual reality world 506 may include anentire 360° by 180° sphere such that user 316 may also look down.Additionally, user 316 may move around to other locations withinimmersive virtual reality world 506 (i.e., dynamically selectingdifferent dynamically selectable viewpoints of the real-world event).For example, user 316 may select a viewpoint at half court, a viewpointfrom the free-throw line facing the basketball standard, a viewpointsuspended above the basketball standard, or the like.

As described above, system 100 may include one or more structured lightemitters, one or more optical sensors, and/or one or more opticalfilters, among other components. In various implementations of system100, different ratios and/or configurations of the one or morestructured light emitters, optical sensors, and/or optical filters maybe employed, as will be illustrated below. Specifically, FIGS. 6A-6Ewill illustrate an exemplary implementation of system 100 where at leastone optical sensor (and in certain cases, exactly one optical sensor) isused to detect a structured light pattern emitted by each structuredlight emitter. FIG. 7 will illustrate an exemplary node in which aplurality of optical sensors is used to detect a structured lightpattern emitted by a single structured light emitter. FIGS. 8A-8E willillustrate an exemplary implementation of system 100 where one opticalsensor is used to detect a plurality of structured light patternsemitted by a plurality of structured light emitters. Various advantagesassociated with each type of implementation of system 100 will be madeapparent in the description below.

FIG. 6A illustrates exemplary components of an exemplary implementation600 of system 100 capturing depth data using frequency-segregatedstructured light. Specifically, implementation 600 may capture depthdata representative of an object 602 using a plurality of structuredlight emitters 604 (i.e., structured light emitters 604-1 and 604-2), aplurality of optical sensors 606 (i.e., optical sensors 606-1 and606-2), and a plurality of optical filters 608 (i.e., optical filters608-1 and 608-2) associated with each of optical sensors 606.

As labeled in FIG. 6A, implementation 600 of system 100 includes aplurality of nodes (i.e., Node 1 and Node 2, as well as potentiallyother nodes not explicitly shown) each including at least one structuredlight emitter 604, at least one optical sensor 606, and at least oneoptical filter 608 associated with the at least one optical sensor 606.In FIGS. 6A-6E, components numbered with a “−1” suffix are associatedwith the first node (“Node 1”) while components numbered with a “−2”suffix are associated with the second node (“Node 2”). Specifically,structured light emitter 604-1, optical sensor 606-1, optical filter608-1, etc., are included within Node 1. Structured light emitter 604-2,optical sensor 606-2, optical filter 608-2, etc., are included withinNode 2. As shown, each node in the plurality of nodes (i.e., Node 1 andNode 2) is disposed at a different fixed node position in a plurality offixed node positions with respect to a real-world scene in which object602 is included. For example, Node 1 and Node 2 may be two of aplurality of nodes that surrounds a real-world scene that includesobject 602.

Although not explicitly shown in FIG. 6A for clarity, it will beunderstood that implementation 600 of system 100 may further includeadditional components such as those described with respect to otherimplementations of system 100 described herein. For example, asmentioned above, implementation 600 may include one or more additionalnodes (e.g., a Node 3, a Node 4, etc.) positioned at additional fixednode positions and each including similar or the same components shownto be included in Node 1 and Node 2. Moreover, implementation 600 mayinclude computing resources (e.g., servers or other computing devicesincluded in or implementing a data capture processing unit such asprocessing unit 310), and/or any other components described herein or asmay serve a particular implementation.

The components included in each node in implementation 600 may beequivalent to components described above. For example, structured lightemitters 604 may each be similar or identical to structured lightemitter 204, optical sensors 606 may each be similar or identical tooptical sensor 206, and optical filters 608 may each be similar oridentical to optical filter 208. Accordingly, as shown, structured lightemitters 604 may each use respective light beams 610 (i.e., light beams610-1 and 610-2) and respective optical elements 612 (i.e., opticalelements 612-1 and 612-2) to emit respective structured light patterns614 (i.e., structured light patterns 614-1 and 614-2) in a similar waythat system 200 uses light beam 210 and optical element 212 to emitstructured light pattern 214, as described above. Similarly, opticalsensors 606 may each detect respective structured light patternreflections 616 (i.e., structured light pattern reflections 616-1 and616-2) by way of respective optical filters 608 in a similar way thatsystem 200 detects structured light pattern reflection 216 by way ofoptical filter 208, as described above.

Because both structured light emitters 604 are emitting respectivestructured light patterns 614 onto the same surfaces of object 602 andboth optical sensors 606 are detecting respective structured lightpattern reflections 616 from the same surfaces of object 602, thestructured light patterns may crosstalk and/or otherwise interfere witheach other if both structured light patterns are detected by a singleoptical sensor 606 (or, more specifically, by a single pixel detectorwithin the single optical sensor 606). Accordingly, as described above,Node 1 and Node 2 may each be associated with different frequency bandsthat may be segregated from one another.

To illustrate using a specific example, Node 1 may be associated with afrequency band corresponding to wavelengths from approximately 750 nm toapproximately 755 nm. Thus, structured light emitter 604-1 may emitstructured light pattern 614-1 with a wavelength of approximately 752 nm(e.g., by using a light beam 610-1 that emits light with a wavelength ofapproximately 752 nm), and optical filter 608-1 may pass structuredlight pattern reflection 616-1 and other light having a wavelength inthe range from approximately 750 nm to approximately 755 nm whileblocking light having other wavelengths. Similarly, to continue thisexample, Node 2 may be associated with a frequency band corresponding towavelengths from approximately 770 nm to approximately 775 nm (i.e.,segregated from the frequency band of Node 1 by 15 nm). Thus, structuredlight emitter 604-2 may emit structured light pattern 614-2 with awavelength of approximately 772 nm (e.g., by using a light beam 610-2that emits light with a wavelength of approximately 772 nm), and opticalfilter 608-2 may pass structured light pattern reflection 616-2 andother light having a wavelength in the range from approximately 770 nmto approximately 775 nm while blocking light having other wavelengths.

FIGS. 6B and 6C illustrate front views 618-1 and 618-2, respectively. Asshown in FIGS. 6B-6C, optical filters 608 may each be at least as largeas (and cover all or substantially all of) a lens of the optical sensor606 to which they correspond. Accordingly, optical filter 608-1 mayblock structured light pattern reflection 616-2 such that optical sensor606-1 only detects structured light pattern reflection 616-1, whileoptical filter 608-2 may block structured light pattern reflection 616-1such that optical sensor 606-2 only detects structured light patternreflection 616-2.

FIGS. 6D-6E illustrate perspective views 620 (i.e., perspective views620-1 and 620-2) showing object 602 from the perspective of eachrespective node (e.g., as captured by respective optical sensors 606)when respective structured light patterns 614 are emitted onto thesurfaces of object 602 and respective structured light patternreflections 616 are reflecting back. Specifically, perspective view620-1 in FIG. 6D illustrates the structured light pattern of Node 1,which is shown to have a pattern including a plurality of verticalstripes 622-1. As shown, due to the shape of object 602, stripes 622-1may follow a curvature of the surfaces of object 602 and may appear,from the fixed position of optical sensor 606-1 with respect to object602, to bend and contour to the surfaces of object 602.

Similarly, perspective view 620-2 in FIG. 6E illustrates the structuredlight pattern of Node 2, which is shown to have a pattern including aplurality of horizontal stripes 622-2. In some examples, the structuredlight pattern of Node 2 may be the same as that of Node 1 (i.e.,vertical stripes) or of a completely different pattern type than that ofNode 1 (e.g., a dot pattern, a checkered pattern, etc.). Additionally,the structured light pattern of Node 2 may be complementary to thestructured light pattern of Node 1 in the sense that each structuredlight pattern may be more effective than the other structured lightpattern at discerning certain characteristics or types ofcharacteristics of object 602. For example, as shown, due to the shapeof object 602, stripes 622-2 may also follow a curvature of the surfacesof object 602 and may appear, from the fixed position of optical sensor606-2 with respect to object 602, to bend and contour to the surfaces ofobject 602. However, while vertical stripes 622-1 may better illuminateand contour to the top horizontal surface of object 602 than horizontalstripes 622-2, horizontal stripes 622-2 may better illuminate andcontour to the vertical side surfaces of object 602. By triangulatingvarious points on each of stripes 622-1 and 622-2 based on known anglesand fixed positions of both sets of structured light emitters 604 andoptical sensors 606, implementation 600 of system 100 may determinedepth data representative of the surfaces of object 602. Moreparticularly, by using structured light patterns (e.g., complementarystructured light patterns) of both Node 1 and Node 2 together,implementation 600 may generate more accurate and detailed depth datarepresentative of all of the surfaces of object 602 than by using eitherstructured light pattern alone.

In certain examples, as shown in FIG. 6A, structured light emitter 604-1may be associated with exactly one optical sensor (i.e., sensor 606-1)such that only the exactly one optical sensor is configured to detectstructured light pattern 614-1 (e.g., by detecting structured lightpattern reflection 616-1) emitted by structured light emitter 604-1within the first frequency band (e.g., 750 nm to 755 nm in the specificexample above). Optical filter 608-1 may be associated with the exactlyone optical sensor by being positioned directly in front of the exactlyone optical sensor so as to pass structured light pattern reflection616-1 through to be sensed by the exactly one optical sensor and toblock structured light pattern reflection 616-2 from reaching theexactly one optical sensor as structured light pattern reflections 616both reflect from the surfaces of object 602 included in the real-worldscene. Similarly, as further shown, structured light emitter 604-2 maybe associated with another exactly one optical sensor (i.e., sensor606-2) such that only the other exactly one optical sensor is configuredto detect structured light pattern 614-2 (e.g., by detecting structuredlight pattern reflection 616-2) emitted by structured light emitter604-2 within the second frequency band (e.g., approximately 770 nm toapproximately 775 nm in the specific example above). Optical filter608-2 may be associated with the other exactly one optical sensor bybeing positioned directly in front of the other exactly one opticalsensor so as to pass structured light pattern reflection 616-2 throughto be sensed by the other exactly one optical sensor and to blockstructured light pattern reflection 616-1 from reaching the otherexactly one optical sensor as structured light pattern reflections 616both reflect from the surfaces of object 602 included in the real-worldscene.

In other examples (not explicitly illustrated in FIG. 6A), structuredlight emitter 604-1 may be associated with a first plurality of opticalsensors all configured to detect structured light pattern 614-1 emittedby structured light emitter 604-1 by detecting structured light patternreflection 616-1 within the first frequency band. As such, respectiveoptical filters included in a first plurality of optical filters eachequivalent to optical filter 608-1 (e.g., and including optical filter608-1) may each be associated with respective optical sensors in thefirst plurality of optical sensors by being positioned directly in frontof the respective optical sensors in the first plurality of opticalsensors so as to pass structured light pattern reflection 616-1 throughto be sensed by the respective optical sensors in the first plurality ofoptical sensors and to block structured light pattern reflection 616-2from reaching the respective optical sensors in the first plurality ofoptical sensors as structured light pattern reflections 616 reflect fromthe surfaces of object 602 included in the real-world scene. Similarly,structured light emitter 604-2 may be associated with a second pluralityof optical sensors all configured to detect structured light pattern614-2 emitted by structured light emitter 604-2 by detecting structuredlight pattern reflection 616-2 within the second frequency band. Assuch, respective optical filters included in a second plurality ofoptical filters each equivalent to optical filter 608-2 (e.g., andincluding optical filter 608-2) may each be associated with respectiveoptical sensors in the second plurality of optical sensors by beingpositioned directly in front of the respective optical sensors in thesecond plurality of optical sensors so as to pass structured lightpattern reflection 616-2 through to be sensed by the respective opticalsensors in the second plurality of optical sensors and to blockstructured light pattern reflection 616-1 from reaching the respectiveoptical sensors in the second plurality of optical sensors as structuredlight pattern reflections 616 reflect from the surfaces of object 602included in the real-world scene.

In certain examples, system 100 may include a plurality of nodes (e.g.,Node 1, Node 2, etc.) that each include at least one structured lightemitter (e.g., structured light emitters 604-1, 604-2, etc.,respectively). Each node in the plurality of nodes may also include aplurality of camera rigs each including at least one optical sensor andat least one optical filter associated with the at least one opticalsensor. In some examples, the plurality of camera rigs included withineach node may be aligned along a first axis (e.g., a horizontal axis)and spaced apart along a second axis orthogonal to the first axis (e.g.,a vertical axis). For example, referring to Node 1 and Node 2 in FIG.6A, structured light emitter 604-1 may be included within Node 1 andstructured light emitter 604-2 may be included within Node 2, as shown.Then, Node 1 and Node 2 may each include a respective plurality ofcamera rigs. Each camera rig in the plurality of camera rigs included inNode 1 may include at least one optical sensor (e.g., similar to or thesame as optical sensor 606-1) and at least one optical filter (e.g.,similar to or the same as optical filter 608-1). Similarly, each camerarig in the plurality of camera rigs included in Node 2 may include atleast one optical sensor (e.g., similar to or the same as optical sensor606-2) and at least one optical filter (e.g., similar to or the same asoptical filter 608-2). As described above, each node in the plurality ofnodes (e.g., Node 1, Node 2, etc.) may be disposed at a different fixednode position in a plurality of fixed node positions with respect to thereal-world scene in order to detect structured light patterns reflectingfrom object 602 from various perspectives.

To illustrate a node in which a single structured light emitter isassociated with a plurality of optical sensors all configured to detectthe same structured light pattern within the same frequency band, FIG. 7shows an exemplary node 700 of an exemplary implementation of system 100that includes a plurality of camera rigs that each include an opticalsensor and an optical filter. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 7, node 700may include three camera rigs 702 (i.e., camera rigs 702-1, 702-2, and702-3), which may each include respective optical sensors 704 (i.e.,optical sensors 704-1, 704-2, and 704-3) associated with respectiveoptical filters 706 (i.e., optical filters 706-1, 706-2, and 706-3). Oneof camera rigs 702 (i.e., camera rig 702-2 in the example of FIG. 7)also includes a structured light emitter 708. As shown, camera rigs 702may be supported and or positioned (e.g., into respective fixedpositions) by node positioning structure 710, such as a tripod or thelike.

Node positioning structure 710 may provide flexibility in how camerasand other devices are positioned by allowing camera rigs 702 to beadjusted to various heights, angles, etc., based on characteristics of aparticular real-world scene being captured (e.g., characteristics of thetypes of objects within the real-world scene, etc.). For example, if areal-world scene includes human subjects in standing or sittingpositions (e.g., such as a basketball game), node positioning structure710 may allow one camera rig 702 to be positioned at a height ofapproximately eight feet (i.e., taller than most people) and angled tobe aiming slightly downward to capture data related to the tops of theheads and shoulders of the human subjects. Similarly, node positioningstructure 710 may also allow another camera rig 702 to be positioned ata height of approximately two feet and angled to be aiming slightlyupward to capture data related to the bottoms of the chins of the humansubjects, and so forth. These heights and angles are exemplary only. Itwill be understood that node positioning structure 710 may supportcamera rigs 702 being positioned in any suitable arrangement as mayserve a particular implementation.

Node 700 may represent any node of system 100 as may serve a particularimplementation. For example, Node 1 and Node 2 illustrated in FIG. 6Amay each be set up with multiple camera rigs to resemble node 700 incertain implementations. Additionally, any or all of nodes 302(described above in relation to FIG. 3) or nodes 404 (described above inrelation to FIG. 4) may resemble node 700 or a variant of node 700. Forexample, while node 700 is shown to include three camera rigs 702 eachwith one optical sensor 704 and one optical filter 706 (and one withstructured light emitter 708), variants of node 700 may have any numberof camera rigs each including any number or configuration of opticalsensors, optical filters, structured light emitters, and/or othercomponents as may serve a particular implementation. For example, one ormore camera rigs on a variant of node 700 may include an optical sensorassociated with an optical filter, a structured light emitter, and oneor more video cameras configured to capture video data (i.e., 2D videodata) representative of objects within a real-world scene.

Node 700 may be associated with one frequency band such that node 700will not interfere with or receive interference from other nodes (e.g.,neighboring nodes in a configuration of nodes such as illustrated inimplementations of system 100 above). As such, structured light emitter708 may emit a structured light pattern at a frequency within thefrequency band, each of optical sensors 704 may be sensitive to light atthe frequency emitted by structured light emitter 708, and each ofoptical filters 706 may be configured to pass the structured lightpattern emitted at the frequency while blocking light (e.g., from otheroverlapping structured light patterns) emitted at frequencies outsidethe frequency band as one or more structured light patterns reflect fromsurfaces of objects included in a real-world scene. While node 700 maybe located at a fixed node position with respect to the real-world scenesuch that a horizontal perspective of each camera rig 702 is aligned,camera rigs 702 are spaced apart along a vertical dimension such thateach optical sensor 704 may have a slightly different perspective (e.g.,based on the distinct fixed positions of the optical sensors) than theother optical sensors 704. Thus, for example, optical sensor 704-1 maymore accurately and/or effectively detect surfaces of objects that arehigher off the ground (e.g., the tops of people's heads, etc.) than, forexample, optical sensor 704-3, while optical sensor 704-3 may excel inaccurately and effectively detecting surfaces of objects nearer to theground.

Examples in which one or more optical sensors detect one and only onestructured light pattern emitted by one structured light emitter havebeen described and illustrated above. Additionally or alternatively, incertain examples, a single optical sensor may detect multiple structuredlight patterns emitted by multiple structured light emitters. Toillustrate, FIG. 8A shows exemplary components of an exemplaryimplementation 800 of system 100 capturing depth data usingfrequency-segregated structured light. Specifically, implementation 800may capture depth data representative of an object 802 using a pluralityof structured light emitters 804 (i.e., structured light emitters 804-1and 804-2), a single optical sensor 806, and a single optical filter 808associated with optical sensor 806.

In contrast to implementation 600 of FIGS. 6A-6C, implementation 800 mayrepresent elements of only a single node. It will be understood,however, that other nodes similar to the node illustrated inimplementation 800 or any of the other nodes described and illustratedherein, may be included within implementation 800. In FIGS. 8A-8E,elements numbered with a “−1” suffix are associated with the firststructured light emitter (i.e., structured light emitter 804-1), whilecomponents numbered with a “−2” suffix are associated with the secondstructured light emitter (i.e., structured light emitter 804-2).Elements without a suffix may be associated with both structured lightemitters 804 or with implementation 800 more generally. Specifically,structured light emitters 804 may both be associated with optical sensor806 such that optical sensor 806 is configured to detect structuredlight patterns emitted by both structured light emitters 804 within afirst frequency band and a second frequency band. For example, as willbe described in more detail below, optical filter 808 may include aplurality of optical filters, each configured to pass one of the firstand second frequency bands and to block the other, that are integratedtogether according to a pixelated pattern.

Although not explicitly shown in FIG. 8A for clarity, it will beunderstood that implementation 800 of system 100 may further includeadditional components such as those described with respect to otherimplementations of system 100 described herein. For example, asmentioned above, implementation 800 of system 100 may include aplurality of nodes each including at least two structured lightemitters, at least one optical sensor, and at least two optical filtersassociated with the at least one optical sensor and integrated togetheraccording to a pixelated pattern (e.g., included together within anintegrated optical filter as described and illustrated below).Specifically, structured light emitters 804, optical sensor 806, andoptical filter 808 (which may include the plurality of optical filtersintegrated together according to the pixelated pattern) may be includedwithin a particular node in the plurality of nodes, while one or moreother nodes in the plurality of nodes may include the same or similarcomponents. Each node in the plurality of nodes may be disposed at adifferent fixed node position in a plurality of fixed node positionswith respect to the real-world scene. Moreover, implementation 800 mayinclude computing resources (e.g., servers or other computing devicesincluded in or implementing a data capture processing unit such asprocessing unit 310), and/or any other components described herein or asmay serve a particular implementation.

The components included in implementation 800 may be similar orequivalent to components described above. For example, structured lightemitters 804 may each be similar or identical to structured lightemitters 204 or 604, optical sensor 806 may be similar or identical tooptical sensors 206 or 606, and optical filter 808 may have certainsimilarities with optical filters 208 or 608. (As will be described inmore detail below, optical filter 808 may also have importantdifferences as compared to other optical filters described herein thatmay allow optical filter 808 to facilitate the detection by opticalsensor 806 of multiple structured light patterns at multiple segregatedfrequency bands.) Accordingly, as shown, structured light emitters 804may each use respective light beams 810 (i.e., light beams 810-1 and810-2) and respective optical elements 812 (i.e., optical elements 812-1and 812-2) to emit respective structured light patterns 814 (i.e.,structured light patterns 814-1 and 814-2) in a similar way that system200 uses light beam 210 and optical element 212 to emit structured lightpattern 214, as described above. Respective structured light patternreflections 816 (i.e., structured light pattern reflections 816-1 and816-2) may also be reflected back from object 802 to optical sensor 806similarly as described above. Because, as will be described below,optical sensor 806 may be configured to detect reflections from bothstructured light patterns 814-1 and 814-2, structured light patternreflections 816 (i.e., structured light pattern reflections 816-1 and816-2) are both drawn as reflecting back toward optical sensor 806. Toindicate the overlap of structured light pattern reflections 816, thearrows indicative of structured light pattern reflections 816 in FIG. 8Aare labeled “816 (816-1, 816-2)”.

Because both structured light emitters 804 are emitting respectivestructured light patterns 814 onto the same surfaces of object 802 andoptical sensor 806 may be capable of detecting both respectivestructured light pattern reflections 816 from the same surfaces ofobject 802, the structured light patterns may crosstalk and/or otherwiseinterfere with each other if both structured light patterns are detectedby a single pixel detector included within optical sensor 806. However,if filter 808 is positioned in front of optical sensor 806 so as to passeach structured light pattern reflection 816 through to be sensed onlyby particular regions of optical sensor 806 (e.g., regions includingparticular pixel detectors corresponding to different parts of apixelated pattern), optical sensor 806 may detect both structured lightpattern reflections 816 while avoiding unwanted interference between thestructured light patterns.

To this end, optical filter 808 may act as an integrated filterincluding at least a first and a second optical filter. As used herein,an “integrated filter” may “include” different optical filters byincluding discrete regions (e.g., distributed according to a pixelatedpattern) that filter light differently than other discrete regionswithin the integrated filter. For example, to illustrate, FIG. 8B showsa front view 818 of optical sensor 806 and optical filter 808. In FIG.8B, optical filter 808 is shown to be positioned in front of opticalsensor 806 (e.g., in front of a lens or other optics of optical sensor806). A close-up view 820 in FIG. 8B illustrates a part of opticalfilter 808 to show different regions 822 (i.e., regions 822-1 and 822-2)associated with different optical filters included within optical filter808. As shown, regions 822 are integrated with one another according toa pixelated pattern (e.g., in this case, a checkered pixelated pattern).For example, each square illustrated as part of region 822-1 (i.e., theshaded squares in view 820) may be associated with a first opticalfilter (e.g., by being configured to pass a first structured lightpattern emitted within a first frequency band through to be sensed by acorresponding pixel detector or group of pixel detectors within opticalsensor 806 while blocking a second structured light pattern emittedwithin a second frequency band from reaching the corresponding pixeldetector or group of pixel detectors). Similarly, each squareillustrated as part of region 822-2 (i.e., the non-shaded squares inview 820) may be associated with a second optical filter (e.g., by beingconfigured to pass the second structured light pattern emitted withinthe second frequency band through to be sensed by a corresponding pixeldetector or group of pixel detectors within optical sensor 806 whileblocking the first structured light pattern emitted within the firstfrequency band from reaching the corresponding pixel detector or groupof pixel detectors).

By using an integrated optical filter such as optical filter 808, anoptical sensor such as optical sensor 806 may detect multiple structuredlight pattern reflections, even if the reflections are positionedclosely together. In examples where an optical sensor 806 may detect onestructured light pattern rather than a plurality of structured lightpatterns (e.g., such as examples described above), a maximum level ofsurface detail that may be detected for an object may be limited to thelevel of detail of the structured light pattern that may be emittedand/or detected. For example, more surface detail may be detected byemitting a structured light pattern with more stripes than by emitting astructured light pattern with fewer stripes (i.e., by making stripesthinner and/or more closely spaced). However, due to practicallimitations in any system (e.g., the resolution of the optical sensor,etc.), there may be a limit to how much quality may be improved byadding more and more detail (e.g., thinner and/or more closely spacedstripes) to a structured light pattern. Accordingly, an alternative wayto increase a level of surface detail that may be detected is to usespatially-shifted versions of a same structured light pattern in whichilluminated regions (e.g., stripes, dots, etc.) and non-illuminatedregions (e.g., regions between stripes, dots, etc.) of thespatially-shifted versions of the structured light pattern are spatiallyshifted relatively slightly (i.e., so as to overlap with correspondingilluminated regions and non-illuminated regions in the otherspatially-shifted versions of the structured light pattern).

For example, rather than cutting a stripe width in half in order todouble the number of stripes illuminating a particular surface of anobject, the stripe may be emitted, in a spatially-shifted version of thestructured light pattern that contains the stripe, so as to overlap withitself, thereby achieving a similar benefit and effect while notrequiring additional resolution from optical sensor 806 to distinguishbetween narrower stripes. Rather than emitting spatially-shiftedversions of the structured light pattern in a time sequence, which mayslow the overall process of generating the depth data, implementation800 (e.g., structured light emitters 804) may emit bothspatially-shifted versions of a structured light pattern (e.g.,structured light pattern 814) onto an object (e.g., object 802)simultaneously on segregated frequency bands, thereby saving time ascompared to implementations where structured light patterns 814 are eachdisplayed one at a time in sequence. In certain examples, more than twospatially-shifted versions of a structured light pattern may be used tofurther increase the detail captured.

To illustrate using a specific example, structured light emitter 804-1may emit structured light pattern 814-1 with a wavelength ofapproximately 752 nm (e.g., by using a light beam 810-1 that emits lightwith a wavelength of approximately 752 nm), and portions 822-1 ofoptical filter 808-1 may pass structured light pattern reflection 816-1(e.g., as well as other light in a first frequency band including 752 nmsuch as from 750 nm to 755 nm) while blocking light having otherwavelengths. Similarly, to continue this example, structured lightemitter 804-2 may emit structured light pattern 814-2 with a wavelengthof approximately 772 nm (e.g., by using a light beam 810-2 that emitslight with a wavelength of approximately 772 nm), and portions 822-2 ofoptical filter 808-2 may pass structured light pattern reflection 816-2(e.g., as well as other light in a second, segregated frequency bandincluding 772 nm such as from 770 nm to 775 nm) while blocking lighthaving other wavelengths.

FIGS. 8C-8D illustrate perspective views 824 (i.e., perspective views824-1 and 824-2) showing object 802 as illuminated by each respectivestructured light pattern 814 emitted onto the surfaces of object 802 asrespective structured light pattern reflections 816 are reflecting backto optical sensor 806. For example, perspective view 824-1 may beassociated with structured light emitter 804-1 and may illustrate whatoptical sensor 806 may detect using pixels in regions of the pixelatedpattern corresponding to regions 822-1 of optical filter 808 whileperspective view 824-2 may be associated with structured light emitter804-2 and may illustrate what optical sensor 806 may detect using pixelsin regions of the pixelated pattern corresponding to regions 822-2 ofoptical filter 808. As shown, structured light pattern reflection 816-1has a pattern including a plurality of horizontal stripes 826 andstructured light pattern reflection 816-2 has a spatially-shiftedversion of the same pattern including the same plurality of horizontalstripes 826, but is spatially shifted slightly upward such thathorizontal stripes 826 within structured light pattern reflection 816-2overlap with horizontal stripes 826 within structured light patternreflection 816-1.

To illustrate, FIG. 8E shows a perspective view 828 that illustratesobject 802 as illuminated by both structured light patterns 816 at once.For example, perspective view 828 may illustrate what optical sensor 806would detect if not for optical filter 808. As shown in perspective view828, horizontal stripes 826 may all overlap with one another such thatthere is little or no space between horizontal stripes 826. In otherwords, without optical filter 808, virtually all of object 802 mayappear to be illuminated due to crosstalk and interference between therespective structured light patterns such that depth data representativeof object 802 may not be properly captured. By using optical filter 808,however, perspective view 828 illustrates that a greater level of detailrepresentative of object 802 may be detected than with a singlestructured light pattern.

FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary method 900 for capturing depth datausing frequency-segregated structured light. While FIG. 9 illustratesexemplary operations according to one embodiment, other embodiments mayomit, add to, reorder, and/or modify any of the operations shown in FIG.9. One or more of the operations shown in FIG. 9 may be performed bysystem 100 and/or any implementation thereof.

In operation 902, a depth capture system may emit a first structuredlight pattern onto surfaces of objects included in a real-world scene.Operation 902 may be performed in any of the ways described herein. Forexample, the depth capture system may include a first structured lightemitter disposed at a first fixed position with respect to thereal-world scene and may use the first structured light emitter to emitthe first structured light pattern onto the surfaces within a firstfrequency band.

In operation 904, the depth capture system may emit a second structuredlight pattern onto the surfaces of the objects included in thereal-world scene. Operation 904 may be performed in any of the waysdescribed herein. For example, the depth capture system may include asecond structured light emitter disposed at a second fixed position withrespect to the real-world scene and may use the second structured lightemitter to emit the second structured light pattern onto the surfaceswithin a second frequency band. The second frequency band may besegregated from the first frequency band.

In operation 906, the depth capture system may detect the firststructured light pattern by way of a first optical filter. Operation 906may be performed in any of the ways described herein. For example, thedepth capture system may include one or more optical sensors disposed atone or more additional fixed positions with respect to the real-worldscene and may use the one or more optical sensors to detect the firststructured light pattern. As such, the first optical filter may beassociated with the one or more optical sensors and may be configured topass the first structured light pattern emitted within the firstfrequency band and to block the second structured light pattern emittedwithin the second frequency band.

In operation 908, the depth capture system may detect the secondstructured light pattern by way of a second optical filter. Operation908 may be performed in any of the ways described herein. For example,the depth capture system may use the one or more optical sensorsdisposed at the one or more additional fixed positions with respect tothe real-world scene to detect the second structured light pattern. Assuch, the second optical filter may be associated with the one or moreoptical sensors and may be configured to pass the second structuredlight pattern emitted within the second frequency band and to block thefirst structured light pattern emitted within the first frequency band.

In operation 910, the depth capture system may generate depth datarepresentative of the surfaces of the objects included in the real-worldscene. Operation 910 may be performed in any of the ways describedherein. For example, the depth capture system may generate the depthdata based on the detecting of the first and second structured lightpatterns in operations 906 and 908, respectively.

FIG. 10 illustrates an exemplary method 1000 for capturing depth datausing frequency-segregated structured light. While FIG. 10 illustratesexemplary operations according to one embodiment, other embodiments mayomit, add to, reorder, and/or modify any of the operations shown in FIG.10. One or more of the operations shown in FIG. 10 may be performed bysystem 100 and/or any implementation thereof.

In operation 1002, a depth capture system may emit a first structuredlight pattern onto surfaces of objects included in a real-world scene.Operation 1002 may be performed in any of the ways described herein. Forexample, the depth capture system may include a first structured lightemitter disposed at a first fixed position with respect to thereal-world scene and may use the first structured light emitter to emitthe first structured light pattern onto the surfaces within a firstfrequency band. More particularly, in certain examples, the firststructured light emitter may be included within a first node in aplurality of nodes of the depth capture system.

In operation 1004, the depth capture system may emit a second structuredlight pattern onto the surfaces of the objects included in thereal-world scene. Operation 1004 may be performed in any of the waysdescribed herein. For example, the depth capture system may include asecond structured light emitter disposed at a second fixed position withrespect to the real-world scene and may use the second structured lightemitter to emit the second structured light pattern onto the surfaceswithin a second frequency band. More particularly, in certain examples,the second structured light emitter may be included within a second nodein the plurality of nodes of the depth capture system. Additionally, thesecond frequency band may be segregated from the first frequency band.

In operation 1006, the depth capture system may detect the firststructured light pattern by way of a first plurality of optical filters.Operation 1006 may be performed in any of the ways described herein. Forexample, the depth capture system may include a plurality of opticalsensors each associated with a different camera rig in a plurality ofcamera rigs included in the first node and disposed at a first pluralityof additional fixed positions with respect to the real-world scene, andmay use the first plurality of optical sensors to detect the firststructured light pattern. As such, each optical filter in the firstplurality of optical filters may be associated with a respective opticalsensor in the first plurality of optical sensors and may be configuredto pass the first structured light pattern emitted within the firstfrequency band and to block the second structured light pattern emittedwithin the second frequency band.

In operation 1008, the depth capture system may detect the secondstructured light pattern by way of a second plurality of opticalfilters. Operation 1008 may be performed in any of the ways describedherein. For example, the depth capture system may include a plurality ofoptical sensors each associated with a different camera rig in aplurality of camera rigs included in the second node and disposed at asecond plurality of additional fixed positions with respect to thereal-world scene, and may use the second plurality of optical sensors todetect the second structured light pattern. As such, each optical filterin the second optical filters may be associated with a respectiveoptical sensor in the second plurality of optical sensors and may beconfigured to pass the second structured light pattern emitted withinthe second frequency band and to block the first structured lightpattern emitted within the first frequency band.

In operation 1010, the depth capture system may generate depth datarepresentative of the surfaces of the objects included in the real-worldscene. Operation 1010 may be performed in any of the ways describedherein. For example, the depth capture system may generate the depthdata based on the detecting of the first and second structured lightpatterns in operations 1006 and 1008, respectively.

In operation 1012, the depth capture system may generate a volumetricdata stream representative of a dynamic volumetric model of the surfacesof the objects included in the real-world scene. For example, the depthcapture system may generate the volumetric data stream based on thedepth data generated in operation 1010. In certain examples, the dynamicvolumetric model of the surfaces of the objects in the real-world scenemay be configured to be used to generate virtual reality media contentrepresentative of the real-world scene as experienced from a dynamicallyselectable viewpoint corresponding to an arbitrary location within thereal-world scene. For example, the dynamically selectable viewpoint maybe selected by a user of a media player device while the user isexperiencing the real-world scene using the media player device.Operation 1012 may be performed in any of the ways described herein.

In operation 1014, the depth capture system may provide, to the mediaplayer device and based on the volumetric data stream, the virtualreality media content representative of the real-world scene asexperienced from the dynamically selectable viewpoint corresponding tothe arbitrary location within the real-world scene Operation 1014 may beperformed in any of the ways described herein.

In certain embodiments, one or more of the systems, components, and/orprocesses described herein may be implemented and/or performed by one ormore appropriately configured computing devices. To this end, one ormore of the systems and/or components described above may include or beimplemented by any computer hardware and/or computer-implementedinstructions (e.g., software) embodied on at least one non-transitorycomputer-readable medium configured to perform one or more of theprocesses described herein. In particular, system components may beimplemented on one physical computing device or may be implemented onmore than one physical computing device. Accordingly, system componentsmay include any number of computing devices, and may employ any of anumber of computer operating systems.

In certain embodiments, one or more of the processes described hereinmay be implemented at least in part as instructions embodied in anon-transitory computer-readable medium and executable by one or morecomputing devices. In general, a processor (e.g., a microprocessor)receives instructions, from a non-transitory computer-readable medium,(e.g., a memory, etc.), and executes those instructions, therebyperforming one or more processes, including one or more of the processesdescribed herein. Such instructions may be stored and/or transmittedusing any of a variety of known computer-readable media.

A computer-readable medium (also referred to as a processor-readablemedium) includes any non-transitory medium that participates inproviding data (e.g., instructions) that may be read by a computer(e.g., by a processor of a computer). Such a medium may take many forms,including, but not limited to, non-volatile media, and/or volatilemedia. Non-volatile media may include, for example, optical or magneticdisks and other persistent memory. Volatile media may include, forexample, dynamic random access memory (“DRAM”), which typicallyconstitutes a main memory. Common forms of computer-readable mediainclude, for example, a disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any othermagnetic medium, a compact disc read-only memory (“CD-ROM”), a digitalvideo disc (“DVD”), any other optical medium, random access memory(“RAM”), programmable read-only memory (“PROM”), electrically erasableprogrammable read-only memory (“EPROM”), FLASH-EEPROM, any other memorychip or cartridge, or any other tangible medium from which a computercan read.

FIG. 11 illustrates an exemplary computing device 1100 that may bespecifically configured to perform one or more of the processesdescribed herein. As shown in FIG. 11, computing device 1100 may includea communication interface 1102, a processor 1104, a storage device 1106,and an input/output (“I/O”) module 1108 communicatively connected via acommunication infrastructure 1110. While an exemplary computing device1100 is shown in FIG. 11, the components illustrated in FIG. 11 are notintended to be limiting. Additional or alternative components may beused in other embodiments. Components of computing device 1100 shown inFIG. 11 will now be described in additional detail.

Communication interface 1102 may be configured to communicate with oneor more computing devices. Examples of communication interface 1102include, without limitation, a wired network interface (such as anetwork interface card), a wireless network interface (such as awireless network interface card), a modem, an audio/video connection,and any other suitable interface.

Processor 1104 generally represents any type or form of processing unitcapable of processing data or interpreting, executing, and/or directingexecution of one or more of the instructions, processes, and/oroperations described herein. Processor 1104 may direct execution ofoperations in accordance with one or more applications 1112 or othercomputer-executable instructions such as may be stored in storage device1106 or another computer-readable medium.

Storage device 1106 may include one or more data storage media, devices,or configurations and may employ any type, form, and combination of datastorage media and/or device. For example, storage device 1106 mayinclude, but is not limited to, a hard drive, network drive, flashdrive, magnetic disc, optical disc, RAM, dynamic RAM, other non-volatileand/or volatile data storage units, or a combination or sub-combinationthereof. Electronic data, including data described herein, may betemporarily and/or permanently stored in storage device 1106. Forexample, data representative of one or more executable applications 1112configured to direct processor 1104 to perform any of the operationsdescribed herein may be stored within storage device 1106. In someexamples, data may be arranged in one or more databases residing withinstorage device 1106.

I/O module 1108 may include one or more I/O modules configured toreceive user input and provide user output. One or more I/O modules maybe used to receive input for a single virtual reality experience. I/Omodule 1108 may include any hardware, firmware, software, or combinationthereof supportive of input and output capabilities. For example, I/Omodule 1108 may include hardware and/or software for capturing userinput, including, but not limited to, a keyboard or keypad, atouchscreen component (e.g., touchscreen display), a receiver (e.g., anRF or infrared receiver), motion sensors, and/or one or more inputbuttons.

I/O module 1108 may include one or more devices for presenting output toa user, including, but not limited to, a graphics engine, a display(e.g., a display screen), one or more output drivers (e.g., displaydrivers), one or more audio speakers, and one or more audio drivers. Incertain embodiments, I/O module 1108 is configured to provide graphicaldata to a display for presentation to a user. The graphical data may berepresentative of one or more graphical user interfaces and/or any othergraphical content as may serve a particular implementation.

In some examples, any of the facilities described herein may beimplemented by or within one or more components of computing device1100. For example, one or more applications 1112 residing within storagedevice 1106 may be configured to direct processor 1104 to perform one ormore processes or functions associated with structured light emissionfacility 102, structured light detection facility 104, or managementfacility 106 of system 100 (see FIG. 1). Likewise, storage facility 108of system 100 may be implemented by or within storage device 1106.

To the extent the aforementioned embodiments collect, store, and/oremploy personal information provided by individuals, it should beunderstood that such information shall be used in accordance with allapplicable laws concerning protection of personal information.Additionally, the collection, storage, and use of such information maybe subject to consent of the individual to such activity, for example,through well known “opt-in” or “opt-out” processes as may be appropriatefor the situation and type of information. Storage and use of personalinformation may be in an appropriately secure manner reflective of thetype of information, for example, through various encryption andanonymization techniques for particularly sensitive information.

In the preceding description, various exemplary embodiments have beendescribed with reference to the accompanying drawings. It will, however,be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereto,and additional embodiments may be implemented, without departing fromthe scope of the invention as set forth in the claims that follow. Forexample, certain features of one embodiment described herein may becombined with or substituted for features of another embodimentdescribed herein. The description and drawings are accordingly to beregarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: emitting, by a depth capturesystem using a first structured light emitter included within the depthcapture system and disposed at a first fixed position with respect to areal-world scene, a first structured light pattern onto surfaces ofobjects included in the real-world scene, the first structured lightpattern emitted within a first frequency band; emitting, by the depthcapture system using a second structured light emitter included withinthe depth capture system and disposed at a second fixed position withrespect to the real-world scene, a second structured light pattern ontothe surfaces of the objects included in the real-world scene, the secondstructured light pattern emitted within a second frequency bandsegregated from the first frequency band; detecting, by the depthcapture system using one or more optical sensors included within thedepth capture system and disposed at one or more additional fixedpositions with respect to the real-world scene, the first structuredlight pattern by way of a first optical filter, the first optical filterassociated with the one or more optical sensors and configured to passthe first structured light pattern emitted within the first frequencyband and to block the second structured light pattern emitted within thesecond frequency band; detecting, by the depth capture system using theone or more optical sensors, the second structured light pattern by wayof a second optical filter, the second optical filter associated withthe one or more optical sensors and configured to pass the secondstructured light pattern emitted within the second frequency band and toblock the first structured light pattern emitted within the firstfrequency band; and generating, by the depth capture system based on thedetecting of the first and second structured light patterns, depth datarepresentative of the surfaces of the objects included in the real-worldscene.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: generating, by thedepth capture system based on the depth data, a volumetric data streamrepresentative of a dynamic volumetric model of the surfaces of theobjects included in the real-world scene, the dynamic volumetric modelof the surfaces of the objects in the real-world scene configured to beused to generate virtual reality media content representative of thereal-world scene as experienced from a dynamically selectable viewpointcorresponding to an arbitrary location within the real-world scene, thedynamically selectable viewpoint selected by a user of a media playerdevice while the user is experiencing the real-world scene using themedia player device; and providing, by the depth capture system to themedia player device and based on the volumetric data stream, the virtualreality media content representative of the real-world scene asexperienced from the dynamically selectable viewpoint corresponding tothe arbitrary location within the real-world scene.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, wherein: the first structured light emitter used for theemitting of the first structured light pattern is associated withexactly one optical sensor included within the one or more opticalsensors used for the detecting of the first and second structured lightpatterns such that only the exactly one optical sensor is configured todetect the first structured light pattern emitted by the firststructured light emitter within the first frequency band; the firstoptical filter is associated with the exactly one optical sensor bybeing positioned so as to pass the first structured light patternthrough to be sensed by the exactly one optical sensor and to block thesecond structured light pattern from reaching the exactly one opticalsensor as the first and second structured light patterns reflect fromthe surfaces of the objects included in the real-world scene; the secondstructured light emitter used for the emitting of the second structuredlight pattern is associated with another exactly one optical sensorincluded within the one or more optical sensors used for the detectingof the first and second structured light patterns such that only theother exactly one optical sensor is configured to detect the secondstructured light pattern emitted by the second structured light emitterwithin the second frequency band; and the second optical filter isassociated with the other exactly one optical sensor by being positionedso as to pass the second structured light pattern through to be sensedby the other exactly one optical sensor and to block the firststructured light pattern from reaching the other exactly one opticalsensor as the first and second structured light patterns reflect fromthe surfaces of the objects included in the real-world scene.
 4. Themethod of claim 3, wherein: the depth capture system includes aplurality of nodes each including at least one structured light emitter,at least one optical sensor, and at least one optical filter associatedwith the at least one optical sensor; the first structured lightemitter, the exactly one optical sensor, and the first optical filterare included within a first node in the plurality of nodes; the secondstructured light emitter, the other exactly one optical sensor, and thesecond optical filter are included within a second node in the pluralityof nodes; and each node in the plurality of nodes is disposed at adifferent fixed node position in a plurality of fixed node positionswith respect to the real-world scene, the plurality of fixed nodepositions including a first fixed node position at which the first nodeis disposed and a second fixed node position at which the second node isdisposed.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein: the first structured lightemitter used for the emitting of the first structured light pattern andthe second structured light emitter used for the emitting of the secondstructured light pattern are both associated with a particular opticalsensor included within the one or more optical sensors used for thedetecting of the first and second structured light patterns such thatthe particular optical sensor is configured to detect both the firststructured light pattern emitted by the first structured light emitterwithin the first frequency band and the second structured light patternemitted by the second structured light emitter within the secondfrequency band; and the first optical filter and the second opticalfilter are integrated together according to a pixelated pattern suchthat both the first optical filter and the second optical filter areassociated with the particular optical sensor by being positionedtogether in front of the particular optical sensor so as to pass thefirst structured light pattern through to be sensed by regions of theparticular optical sensor corresponding to a first part of the pixelatedpattern, to block the second structured light pattern from reaching theregions of the particular optical sensor corresponding to the first partof the pixelated pattern, to pass the second structured light patternthrough to be sensed by regions of the particular optical sensorcorresponding to a second part of the pixelated pattern, and to blockthe first structured light pattern from reaching the regions of theparticular optical sensor corresponding to the second part of thepixelated pattern as the first and second structured light patternsreflect from the surfaces of the objects included in the real-worldscene.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein: the depth capture systemincludes a plurality of nodes each including at least two structuredlight emitters, at least one optical sensor, and at least two opticalfilters associated with the at least one optical sensor and integratedtogether according to the pixelated pattern; the first structured lightemitter, the second structured light emitter, the particular opticalsensor, and the first and second optical filters integrated togetheraccording to the pixelated pattern are included within a particular nodein the plurality of nodes; and each node in the plurality of nodes isdisposed at a different fixed node position in a plurality of fixed nodepositions with respect to the real-world scene, the plurality of fixednode positions including a first fixed node position at which the firstnode is disposed.
 7. The method of claim 5, wherein the first structuredlight pattern emitted by the first structured light emitter and thesecond structured light pattern emitted by the second structured lightemitter are each spatially-shifted versions of a same structured lightpattern that includes illuminated regions and non-illuminated regions,the spatially-shifted versions positioned such that illuminated regionsin the first structured light pattern overlap with correspondingilluminated regions in the second structured light pattern.
 8. Themethod of claim 1, wherein: the first structured light emitter used forthe emitting of the first structured light pattern is associated with afirst plurality of optical sensors included within the one or moreoptical sensors used for the detecting of the first and secondstructured light patterns such that the first plurality of opticalsensors are all configured to detect the first structured light patternemitted by the first structured light emitter within the first frequencyband; respective optical filters included in a first plurality ofoptical filters each equivalent to the first optical filter and thatincludes the first optical filter are each associated with respectiveoptical sensors in the first plurality of optical sensors by beingpositioned so as to pass the first structured light pattern through tobe sensed by the respective optical sensors in the first plurality ofoptical sensors and to block the second structured light pattern fromreaching the respective optical sensors in the first plurality ofoptical sensors as the first and second structured light pattern reflectfrom the surfaces of the objects included in the real-world scene; thesecond structured light emitter used for the emitting of the secondstructured light pattern is associated with a second plurality ofoptical sensors included within the one or more optical sensors used forthe detecting of the first and second structured light patterns suchthat the second plurality of optical sensors are all configured todetect the second structured light pattern emitted by the secondstructured light emitter within the second frequency band; andrespective optical filters included in a second plurality of opticalfilters each equivalent to the second optical filter and that includesthe second optical filter are each associated with respective opticalsensors in the second plurality of optical sensors by being positionedso as to pass the second structured light pattern through to be sensedby the respective optical sensors in the second plurality of opticalsensors and to block the first structured light pattern from reachingthe respective optical sensors in the second plurality of opticalsensors as the first and second structured light pattern reflect fromthe surfaces of the objects included in the real-world scene.
 9. Themethod of claim 8, wherein: the depth capture system includes aplurality of nodes each including at least one structured light emitter;each node in the plurality of nodes includes a plurality of camera rigseach including at least one optical sensor and at least one opticalfilter associated with the at least one optical sensor, the plurality ofcamera rigs included within each node aligned along a first axis andspaced apart along a second axis orthogonal to the first axis; the firststructured light emitter is included within a first node in theplurality of nodes; the second structured light emitter is includedwithin a second node in the plurality of nodes; each camera rig in theplurality of camera rigs included in the first node includes at leastone optical sensor in the first plurality of optical sensors and atleast one optical filter in the first plurality of optical filters; eachcamera rig in the plurality of camera rigs included in the second nodeincludes at least one optical sensor in the second plurality of opticalsensors and at least one optical filter in the second plurality ofoptical filters; and each node in the plurality of nodes is disposed ata different fixed node position in a plurality of fixed node positionswith respect to the real-world scene, the plurality of fixed nodepositions including a first fixed node position at which the first nodeis disposed and a second fixed node position at which the second node isdisposed.
 10. The method of claim 1, embodied as computer-executableinstructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium.11. A method comprising: emitting, by a depth capture system using afirst structured light emitter included within the depth capture systemand disposed at a first fixed position with respect to a real-worldscene, a first structured light pattern onto surfaces of objectsincluded in the real-world scene, the first structured light patternemitted within a first frequency band and the first structured lightemitter included within a first node in a plurality of nodes of thedepth capture system; emitting, by the depth capture system using asecond structured light emitter included within the depth capture systemand disposed at a second fixed position with respect to the real-worldscene, a second structured light pattern onto the surfaces of theobjects included in the real-world scene, the second structured lightpattern emitted within a second frequency band segregated from the firstfrequency band and the second structured light emitter included within asecond node in the plurality of nodes of the depth capture system;detecting, by the depth capture system using a first plurality ofoptical sensors each associated with a different camera rig in aplurality of camera rigs included in the first node and disposed at afirst plurality of additional fixed positions with respect to thereal-world scene, the first structured light pattern by way of a firstplurality of optical filters, each optical filter in the first pluralityof optical filters associated with a respective optical sensor in thefirst plurality of optical sensors and configured to pass the firststructured light pattern emitted within the first frequency band and toblock the second structured light pattern emitted within the secondfrequency band; detecting, by the depth capture system using a secondplurality of optical sensors each associated with a different camera rigin a plurality of camera rigs included in the second node and disposedat a second plurality of additional fixed positions with respect to thereal-world scene, the second structured light pattern by way of a secondplurality of optical filters, each optical filter in the secondplurality of optical filters associated with a respective optical sensorin the second plurality of optical sensors and configured to pass thesecond structured light pattern emitted within the second frequency bandand to block the first structured light pattern emitted within the firstfrequency band; generating, by the depth capture system based on thedetecting of the first and second structured light patterns, depth datarepresentative of the surfaces of the objects included in the real-worldscene; generating, by the depth capture system based on the depth data,a volumetric data stream representative of a dynamic volumetric model ofthe surfaces of the objects included in the real-world scene, thedynamic volumetric model of the surfaces of the objects in thereal-world scene configured to be used to generate virtual reality mediacontent representative of the real-world scene as experienced from adynamically selectable viewpoint corresponding to an arbitrary locationwithin the real-world scene, the dynamically selectable viewpointselected by a user of a media player device while the user isexperiencing the real-world scene using the media player device; andproviding, by the depth capture system to the media player device andbased on the volumetric data stream, the virtual reality media contentrepresentative of the real-world scene as experienced from thedynamically selectable viewpoint corresponding to the arbitrary locationwithin the real-world scene.
 12. The method of claim 11, embodied ascomputer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitorycomputer-readable medium.
 13. A system comprising: a first structuredlight emitter disposed at a first fixed position with respect to areal-world scene and configured to emit a first structured light patternonto surfaces of objects included in the real-world scene, the firststructured light pattern emitted within a first frequency band; a secondstructured light emitter disposed at a second fixed position withrespect to the real-world scene and configured to emit a secondstructured light pattern onto the surfaces of the objects included inthe real-world scene, the second structured light pattern emitted withina second frequency band segregated from the first frequency band; afirst optical filter configured to pass the first structured lightpattern emitted within the first frequency band and to block the secondstructured light pattern emitted within the second frequency band; asecond optical filter configured to pass the second structured lightpattern emitted within the second frequency band and to block the firststructured light pattern emitted within the first frequency band; one ormore optical sensors associated with the first and second opticalfilters and disposed at one or more additional fixed positions withrespect to the real-world scene, the one or more optical sensorsconfigured to detect the first structured light pattern by way of thefirst optical filter, and detect the second structured light pattern byway of the second optical filter; and at least one physical computingdevice configured to generate, based on the detection of the first andsecond structured light patterns by the one or more optical sensors,depth data representative of the surfaces of the objects included in thereal-world scene.
 14. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least onephysical computing device is further configured to: generate, based onthe depth data, a volumetric data stream representative of a dynamicvolumetric model of the surfaces of the objects included in thereal-world scene, the dynamic volumetric model of the surfaces of theobjects in the real-world scene configured to be used to generatevirtual reality media content representative of the real-world scene asexperienced from a dynamically selectable viewpoint corresponding to anarbitrary location within the real-world scene, the dynamicallyselectable viewpoint selected by a user of a media player device whilethe user is experiencing the real-world scene using the media playerdevice; and provide, to the media player device based on the volumetricdata stream, the virtual reality media content representative of thereal-world scene as experienced from the dynamically selectableviewpoint corresponding to the arbitrary location within the real-worldscene.
 15. The system of claim 13, wherein: the first structured lightemitter configured to emit the first structured light pattern isassociated with exactly one optical sensor included within the one ormore optical sensors configured to detect the first and secondstructured light patterns such that only the exactly one optical sensoris configured to detect the first structured light pattern emitted bythe first structured light emitter within the first frequency band; thefirst optical filter is associated with the exactly one optical sensorby being positioned so as to pass the first structured light patternthrough to be sensed by the exactly one optical sensor and to block thesecond structured light pattern from reaching the exactly one opticalsensor as the first and second structured light patterns reflect fromthe surfaces of the objects included in the real-world scene; the secondstructured light emitter configured to emit the second structured lightpattern is associated with another exactly one optical sensor includedwithin the one or more optical sensors configured to detect the firstand second structured light patterns such that only the other exactlyone optical sensor is configured to detect the second structured lightpattern emitted by the second structured light emitter within the secondfrequency band; and the second optical filter is associated with theother exactly one optical sensor by being positioned so as to pass thesecond structured light pattern through to be sensed by the otherexactly one optical sensor and to block the first structured lightpattern from reaching the other exactly one optical sensor as the firstand second structured light patterns reflect from the surfaces of theobjects included in the real-world scene.
 16. The system of claim 15,further comprising a plurality of nodes each including at least onestructured light emitter, at least one optical sensor, and at least oneoptical filter associated with the at least one optical sensor; wherein:the first structured light emitter, the exactly one optical sensor, andthe first optical filter are included within a first node in theplurality of nodes; the second structured light emitter, the otherexactly one optical sensor, and the second optical filter are includedwithin a second node in the plurality of nodes; and each node in theplurality of nodes is disposed at a different fixed node position in aplurality of fixed node positions with respect to the real-world scene,the plurality of fixed node positions including a first fixed nodeposition at which the first node is disposed and a second fixed nodeposition at which the second node is disposed.
 17. The system of claim13, wherein: the first structured light emitter configured to emit thefirst structured light pattern and the second structured light emitterconfigured to emit the second structured light pattern are bothassociated with a particular optical sensor included within the one ormore optical sensors configured to detect the first and secondstructured light patterns such that the particular optical sensor isconfigured to detect both the first structured light pattern emitted bythe first structured light emitter within the first frequency band andthe second structured light pattern emitted by the second structuredlight emitter within the second frequency band; and the first opticalfilter and the second optical filter are integrated together accordingto a pixelated pattern such that both the first optical filter and thesecond optical filter are associated with the particular optical sensorby being positioned together in front of the particular optical sensorso as to pass the first structured light pattern through to be sensed byregions of the particular optical sensor corresponding to a first partof the pixelated pattern, to block the second structured light patternfrom reaching the regions of the particular optical sensor correspondingto the first part of the pixelated pattern, to pass the secondstructured light pattern through to be sensed by regions of theparticular optical sensor corresponding to a second part of thepixelated pattern, and to block the first structured light pattern fromreaching the regions of the particular optical sensor corresponding tothe second part of the pixelated pattern as the first and secondstructured light patterns reflect from the surfaces of the objectsincluded in the real-world scene.
 18. The system of claim 17, whereinthe first structured light pattern emitted by the first structured lightemitter and the second structured light pattern emitted by the secondstructured light emitter are each spatially-shifted versions of a samestructured light pattern that includes illuminated regions andnon-illuminated regions, the spatially-shifted versions positioned suchthat illuminated regions in the first structured light pattern overlapwith corresponding illuminated regions in the second structured lightpattern.
 19. The system of claim 13, wherein: the first structured lightemitter configured to emit the first structured light pattern isassociated with a first plurality of optical sensors included within theone or more optical sensors configured to detect the first and secondstructured light patterns such that the first plurality of opticalsensors are all configured to detect the first structured light patternemitted by the first structured light emitter within the first frequencyband; respective optical filters included in a first plurality ofoptical filters each equivalent to the first optical filter and thatincludes the first optical filter are each associated with respectiveoptical sensors in the first plurality of optical sensors by beingpositioned so as to pass the first structured light pattern through tobe sensed by the respective optical sensors in the first plurality ofoptical sensors and to block the second structured light pattern fromreaching the respective optical sensors in the first plurality ofoptical sensors as the first and second structured light pattern reflectfrom the surfaces of the objects included in the real-world scene; thesecond structured light emitter configured to emit the second structuredlight pattern is associated with a second plurality of optical sensorsincluded within the one or more optical sensors configured to detect thefirst and second structured light patterns such that the secondplurality of optical sensors are all configured to detect the secondstructured light pattern emitted by the second structured light emitterwithin the second frequency band; and respective optical filtersincluded in a second plurality of optical filters each equivalent to thesecond optical filter and that includes the second optical filter areeach associated with respective optical sensors in the second pluralityof optical sensors by being positioned so as to pass the secondstructured light pattern through to be sensed by the respective opticalsensors in the second plurality of optical sensors and to block thefirst structured light pattern from reaching the respective opticalsensors in the second plurality of optical sensors as the first andsecond structured light pattern reflect from the surfaces of the objectsincluded in the real-world scene.
 20. The system of claim 19, furthercomprising a plurality of nodes each including at least one structuredlight emitter; wherein: each node in the plurality of nodes includes aplurality of camera rigs each including at least one optical sensor andat least one optical filter associated with the at least one opticalsensor, the plurality of camera rigs included within each node alignedalong a first axis and spaced apart along a second axis orthogonal tothe first axis; the first structured light emitter is included within afirst node in the plurality of nodes; the second structured lightemitter is included within a second node in the plurality of nodes; eachcamera rig in the plurality of camera rigs included in the first nodeincludes at least one optical sensor in the first plurality of opticalsensors and at least one optical filter in the first plurality ofoptical filters; each camera rig in the plurality of camera rigsincluded in the second node includes at least one optical sensor in thesecond plurality of optical sensors and at least one optical filter inthe second plurality of optical filters; and each node in the pluralityof nodes is disposed at a different fixed node position in a pluralityof fixed node positions with respect to the real-world scene, theplurality of fixed node positions including a first fixed node positionat which the first node is disposed and a second fixed node position atwhich the second node is disposed.